
Glass f S S ft 
Book l^ .i' hA 




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SPEECH 



HON. LEA¥IS CASS, OF MICHIGAN, 

ON 

THE OREGON QUESTION. 



DELIYERED 




IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, MONDAY, MARCH 30, 1846. 



The Joint Resolution for giving the notice to tei-- 
minato the convention between the United States 
and Great Britain, relative to the Oregon terri- 
tory, being under considerEition— 

- Mr. CASS addressed the Senate as follows: 

Mr. President: I do not rise at this late period 
to enter into any formal consideration of the prin- 
cipal topic involved in the proposition now pending 
before the Senate. I cannot flatter myself, that any 
such effort of mine would be successful, or would 
deserve to be so. I have listened attentively to the 
progress of this discussion, and while I acknowl- 
edge my gratification at much I have heard, still 
sentiments have been advanced, and views pre- 
sented, in which I do not concur, and from which, 
even at the hazard of trespassing upon the indul- 
gence of the Senate, I must express my dissent, 
and briefly the reasons of it. But, sir, I have not 
the I'emotest intention of touching the question of 
the title of Oregon. The tribute I bring to that 
subject is the tribute of conviction, not of discus- 
sion; a concurrence in the views of others, not 
the presentation of my own. The whole matter 
has been placed in bold relief before the country 
and the world by men far more competent, than I 
am to do it justice, and justice they have done it. 
The distinguished Senator from South Carolina, 
who filled, a short time since, theofiice of Secreta- 
ry of State, has left the impress of his talents and 
intelligence upon his correspondence with the Brit- 
ish Minister, and he left to an able successor to 
finish well a task, which was well begun. And 
upon this floor, the Senator from New York in- 
structed us, while he gratified us, by a masterly 
vindication of the American title; and he was fol- 
'•owed by his colleague, and by the Senator from 
Illinois, and by others, too, who have done honor 
to themselves, while doing good service to their 
cotmtry. 

Before, however, I proceed further in my re- 
marks, there is one subject, to which I will make 
a passing allusion. As to correcting the misrep- 
resentatioivs of the day, whether these are volunta- 
ry or involuntary, he that seeks to do it, only pre- 
pares for himself an abundant harvest of disap- 
pointment, and, I may add, of vexation. I seek 
no such impracticable object. In times like the 
present, when interests are threatened, passions; 



excited, parties animated, and when momentous 
questions present themselves for solution, and the 
public mind is alive to the slightest sensation, we 
must expect, that those, upon whose action depends 
the welfare, if not the destiny, of the country, will 
be arraigned, and assailed, and condemned. I 
presume we are all prepared for this. We have 
all lived long enough to know, that this is the tax, 
which our position pays to its elevation. We have 
frequently been reminded, during the progress of 
this debate, of the responsibihty, which men of ex- 
treme opinions, as some of us have been called, 
must encounter, and have been summoned to meet 
it — to meet the consequences of the measures we 
invoke. 

During the course of a public life, now verging 
towards forty years, I have been placed in many a 
condition of responsibility; and often, too, where 
I had few to aid me, and none to consult. I have 
found myself able to march up to my duty, and no 
responsibility, in cities or in forests, has been cast 
upon me, which I have not readily met. 

As it is with me, so it is, I doubt not, with my 
political friends, who regard this whole matter as I 
do, and who are ready to follow it to its final issue, 
whatever or wherever that may be. I submit to 
honorable Senators on the other side of the Cham- 
ber, whether these adjurations are in good taste; 
whether it is not fair to presume, that we have look- 
ed around us, examined what in our judgment we 
ought to do, and then determined to do it, come 
what may? This great controversy with England 
cannot be adjusted without a deep and solemn re- 
sponsibility being cast upon all of us. If there is 
a responsibility in going forward, there is a respon- 
sibility in standing still. Peace has it dangers as 
well as war. They are not indeed of the same 
kind, but they may be more lasting, more dishon- 
orable, and more destructive of the best interests of 
the country; because destructive of those hopes and 
sentiments, which elevate the moral above the ma- 
terial world. Let us, then, leave to egch member 
of this body the course that duty points out to 
him, together with the responsibility he must meet, 
whether arraigned at the tribunal of his conscience, 
his constituents, or his country. 

I observe, that as well myself, as other Senators, 
upon this side of the Senate have been accused of 
dealing in rani and abuse — that I believe is the term — 



In cscfcanse 



•^t"^. 






in the remarks we have submitted, from time to 
time, upon the subject, as it came up incidentally 
or directly for consideration. Tliis rant and abuse, 
of course, had reference to remarks upon the con- 
duct and pretensions of England. 

I should not have adverted to this topic, had it 
not been that the honorable Senator from North 
Carolina, [Mr. Haywood,] not now in his place, 
has given color to the charge, by the expression 
of his "mortification in being obliged to concede 
' to the debates in the British Parliament a'-decided 
' superiority over ourselves in their dignity and 
* moderation." 

He expressed the hope that " we might get the 
' news by the next packet of an outrageous debate 
« in the British Parliament." "At least sufficient 
' to put them even with us on that score." 

Now, Mr. President, it is not necessary to wait 
for the next packet for specimens of the courtesies 
of British parliamentary eloquence, 

I hold one in my hands, which has been here 
some time, and which, from the circumstances, 
and from the station of the speaker, I at least may 
be permitted to refer to, when I find myself, among 
others, charged with participating in an outrageous 
debate, and when patriotism would seem to de- 
mand an unbecoming exhibition in the British 
Parliament, in order to restore, not our dignity, but 
our self-complacency. 

Now, sir, 1 am a fii-m behever in the courtesies 
of life, public and private; and I desire never to 
depart from them. In all I have said, I have not 
uttered a word, which ought to give oflTence, even 
to* poHtical fastidiousness. I have spoken, to be 
sure, plainly, as became a man dealing in great 
truths, involving the character and interests of his 
country, but becomingly. I have not, indeed, 
called ambition moderation; nor cupidity, philan- 
thropy; nor arrogance, humility. Let him do so, 
who believes them such. But I have heard the 
desire of the West, that the sacred rights of their 
country should be enforced and defended, called 
icestern avidity, in the Senate of the United States ! 
I have not even imitated Lord John Russell, and 
talked of blustering. Still less have I imitated a 
greater than Lord John Russell in 4alents, and 
one higher in station, though far lower in those 
qualities, that conciliate respect and esteem, and 
preserve them. 

He who seeks to know the appetite of the Brit- 
ish public for abuse, and how greedilj^it is catered 
for, has but to consult the dally columns of the 
British journals; but let him, who has persuaded 
himself that all is decorum in the British Parlia- 
ment, and that these legislative halls are but bear- 
gardens compared with it, turn to the speeches 
sometimes delivered there. Let him turn to a 
speech delivered by the second man in the realm, 
by the late Lord Chancellor of England, theThcr- 
sites indeed of his day and country, but with high 
intellectual powers, and a vast stock of informa- 
tion, and who no doubt understands the taste of 
his countrjwTien, and knows how to gratify it. 

I have no pleasure in these exhibitions, which 
lessen the dignity of human nature; but we must 
look to the dark as well as to the bright side of 
life, if we desire to bring our opinions to the stand- 
ard of experience. In a debate in the British 
House of Lords, on the 7th of April, 1843, I had 
the honor to be the subject of the vituperation of 



Lord Brougham ; and an honor I s'hall esteem 
it, under the circumstances, as long as the honors 
of this world have any interest for me. I shall 
make no other allusion to the matter but what is 
necessary to the object I have in view, to exhibit 
the style of debate there, so much lauded here, 
and held up to our countrymen as the beau ideal of 
all that is courteous and dignified in political life. 
"There was one man," said the ex-chancellor, 
" who was the very impersonation of mob-hostil- 
' ity to England. He wished to name him, that the 
' name might be clear as the guilt was undivided. 
' He meant General Cass, whose breach of duty 
' to his own Government was so discreditable, and 
' even more flagrant than his breach of duty to hu- 
' manityasaman, and as the free descendent of free 
' English parents, and whose conduct in all those 
' particulars it was impossible to pass over or pal- 
' liate. This person , who had been sent to maintain 
' peace, and to reside at Paris for that purpose, after 
' pacific relations had been established between 
' France and America, did his best to break it, 
' whether by the circulation of statements upon the 
' question of international law, of which he had no 
' more conception than of the languages that were 
' spoken in the moon, [loud laughter,"] (this sar- 
casm provoked their grave lordships to merri- 
ment,) " or by any other arguments of reason, for 
' which he had no more capacity, than he had for 
' understanding legal points and differences. " "For 
' that purpose he was not above pandering to the 
' worst mob feeling of the United States" — " a law- 
' less set of rabble politicians of inferior caste and ! 
'station'" — "a grovelling, groundling set of politic 
' cians'^ — " a set of mere rabble, as contradistinguish- 
' ed from persons of property, or respectability, and oft 
' info7-mafion" — "groundlings in station," 8fc. 

And I am thus characterized by this modest and : 
moderate English lord, because I did what little waa i 
in my power to defeat one of the most flagitious . 
attempts of modern times to establish a dominion 
over the seas, and which, under the pretext of 
abolishing the slave trade, and by virtue of a quin- 
tuple treaty, would have placed the flag, and ships, , 
and seamen of our country, at the disposal of Eng- 
land . 

Lord Brougham did not always talk thus — not t 
when one of his friends applied to me in Paris to i 
remove certain unfavorable impressions made in ai 
high quarter by one of those imprudent and impul- 
sive remarks, which seem to belong to his moral i 

habits. The effort was successful. And now. 

my account of good for evil with Lord Brougham i 
is balanced. 

It is an irksome task to cull expressions likee 
these, and repeat them here. I hold them up not 
as a warning — that is not needed — but to repel tlip 
intimation, that we ought to study the courtes^s 
of our position in the British Parliament- 

When I came here, sir, I felt it due to myself to 
arraign no one's motives, but to yield the ^ame | 
credit for integrity of action to others, wAich I 
claimed for myself. The respect I owed to those 
who sent me here, and to those to wliom I waa 
sent, equally dictated this course. If some of us, 
as has been intimated, are small men) who have 
attained high places, if we have no other claim to 
this false distinction, I hope we shall at least es- 
tablish that claim, which belongs to decorum of 
language and conduct, to life and conversation. 



s 



We all occupy positions hefe high enotigh, and 
\iseful enough, if usefully filled, to satisfy the 
Pleasure of any man's ambition. It ought to be 
-our pride and our effort to identify ourselves with 
this representative body of the sovereignties of the 
States, With this great depository of so much of 
the power of the American people in the three 
■great departments of their Government, executive, 
legislative, and judicial — to establish an esprit du 
•corps, which, white it shall leave us free to fulfil 
«ur duties, whether to our country or to our party, 
«hal] yet unite us in a determination to discard 
«verything, which can diminish the influence, or 
lessen the dignity, of the Senate of the United 
States, While I have the honor of a seat here, I 
will do -nothing to counteract these views. I will 
bandy words of reproach with no one. And the 
same measure of courtesy I am prepared to mete 
to others, I trust v/ill be meted by others to me. 
At any mte, if they are not, I will have no conten- 
tion in this chamber, 

I have regretted many expressions which have 
been heard during the progress of this discussion. 
Faction-. demaffogues-,tdtra patriots, ambitious leaders, 
inflammatory appeals, invective, little men seeking to 
he great cues, and other terms and epithets, not pleas- 
ant to hear, and still less pleasant to repeat. Now, 
sir, nothing is easier than a bitter retort; and he 
who impugns the motives of others, cannot com- 
plain, if he is accused of measuring them by his 
own standard, and seeking, in liis own breast, their 
rule of action. If one portion of the Senate is ac- 
cused of being idtra on the side of their country's 
pretensions, how easy to retort the charge by accu- 
sing the accusers of being ultra on the other ? But 
what is gained by this war of words ? Nothing. 
On the contrary, we lower our dignity as Senators, 
and our charactei-s as men. For myself, I repudi- 
ate it all, I will have no part nor lot in it. I ques- 
tion the motives of no honorable Senator. I be- 
lieve we have all one common object — the honor 
and interest of our country. We differ as to the 
best means of action, and that difference is one of 
the tributes due to human fallibility. But there is 
no exclusive patriotism, on one side or other of this 
body; and I hope there will be no exclusive claim 
to iu 

Some days since, in an incidental discussion, 
which sprung up, I remarked that I could not per- 
■ceive why the parallel of 49^ was assumed as the 
boundary of our claim. Why any man planted his 
foot on that suppositious line upon the face of the 
globe, and erecting a barrier there, said all to the 
north belongs to England, and all to the south to 
the United States. My remark was merely the ex- 
pression of my views, without touching the reasons 
on vi^hich they were founded. The honorable Sen- 
ators from Maine, and Maryland, and Georg-ia, 
have since called in question the accuracy of this 
opinion, and have entered somewhat at length into 
the considerations, which prove that line the true 
line of demarcation between the two countries. 
And tlw Senator from North Carolina [Mr. Hay- 
wood] lays much stress upon this matter, making 
it in fact the foundation of a large portion of his 
argument. That parallel is, in his view, the wall 
of separation between our questionable and our un- 
questionable clahns. To the south he would not 
yield; to the north he would, though he thinks 
that even there our title is the best. There is an 



erroneous impression upon this subject somewhere, 
either with the ultra, or (if I may coin a v/ord) the 
un-ultrct advocates of Oi-egon; and as this line 
seems to be a boundary, beyond which we may 
look, indeed, and wish, but must not go, it is worth 
while to examine summarily what are its real pre- 
tensions to the character thus assumed for it, of 
being the line of contact and of separation between 
two great nations. 

There is no need of discussing the right of civ- 
ilized nations to appropriate to themselves coun- 
tries, newly discovered and inhabited by barbarous 
tribes. The principle and the practice have been 
sanctioned by centuries of experience. What con- 
stitutes this right of appropriation , so as to exclude 
other nations from its exercise in a given case, is a 
question, which has been differently settled in dif- 
ferent ages of the world. At one time it was the 
Pope's bull which conferred the title; at another it 
was discovery only; then settlement under some 
circumstances, and under others discovery; and 
then settlennent and discover)' combined. There 
has been neither a uniform rule, nor a uniform 
practice. But under any circumstances, it is not 
easy to see why a certain parallel of latitude is de- 
clared to be the boundary of our claim. If the val- 
ley of a river were assumed, a principle might be 
also assumed, which would shut us up in it. This 
would be a natural and a tangible boundary. How, 
indeed, England could look to her own practice and 
a.cquisitions, and say to us, you are stopped by 
this hill, or by that valley, or by that river, I know 
not. England, whose colonial charters extended 
from the Atlantic to the South sea, as the Pacific 
ocean was then called, and who actually ejected the 
French from the country between the mountains 
and the Mississippi, where they had first estab- 
hshed themselves, upon the very ground that their 
own rights of discovery, as shown by these chart- 
ers, ran indefinitely west; and who now holds the 
continent of Australia — a region larger than Eu- 
rope — by virtue of the right of discovery; or, in 
other words, because Captain Cook sailed along 
a portion of its coast, and occasionally hoisted a 
pole, or buried a bottle. I am well aware there 
must be limits to this conventional title, by which 
new countries are claimed; nor will it be always 
easy to assign them in fact, as they cannot be 
assigned in principle. We claim the Oregon ter- 
ritory. The grounds of this claim are before the 
world. The country it covers extends from Cal- 
ifornia to the Russian possessions, and from the 
Rocky mountains to the Pacific ocean, — a homoge- 
neous country, unclaimed by England, when our 
title commenced, similar in its character, its pro- 
ductions, its climate, its interests, and its wants, in 
all that constitutes natural identity, and by these 
elements of union, calculated forever to be united 
together, — no more to be divided by the paral- 
lel of 49°, than by the parallel of 43°, nor by 
any of the geographical circles marked upon arti- 
ficial globes. No more to be so divided, than any of 
the possessions of England, scattered over the 
world. In thus claiming the whole of this unap- 
propriated country, unappropriated when our title 
attached to it, the valley of the Columbia, the val- 
ley of Frazer's river, and all the other hills and 
valleys which diversify its surface, we but follow 
the example set us by the nations of the other 
hemisphere, and hold on to the possession of a 



country, wliich is one, and ought to be indivisible. 

It is contended that this parallel of 49° is the 
northern boundary of our just claim, because for 
many years it was assumed as such by our Gov- 
ernment, and that we are bound by its early course 
in this controversy; that the treaty of Utrecht, 
in 1713, between France and England, provided 
for the appointment of commissioners, to establish 
a luie of division between their respective colonies 
upo)! the continent of North America, and that this 
parallel of 49° was thus established. The honor- 
able Senator from Georgia, in his remarks a few 
days since, if he did not abandon this pretension, 
still abandoned all reference to it, in the support of 
his position. He contended, that the parallel of 
49° was our boundary, but for other reasons. In 
the view I am now taking, sir, my piincipal object, 
as will be seen, is to show, that we are at full" lib- 
erty to assert our claim to the country north of 49°, 
unembarrassed by the early action of our own Gov- 
ernment, by showing that the Government was led 
into error respecting its rights by an historical state- 
ment, probably inaccurate in itself, certainly inac- 
curate, if applied to Oregon, but then supposed to 
be true in both respects. Now, what was this 
error .' It was the assertion I have just mentioned, 
that agreeably to the treaty of Utrecht, the parallel 
of 49° was established as a boundary, and having 
been continued west, had become the northern limit 
of Oregon — at least of our Oregon. Upon this 
ground, and upon this ground alone, rested the 
actions and the pretensions of our Government in 
this matter. So far, then, as any question of na- 
tional faith or justice is involved in this subject, we 
must test the proceedings of the Government by its 
owii views, not by other considerations presented 
here at this day. The Government of the United 
States gave to that of Great Britain their claim, 
and their reasons for it. That claim first stopped 
at 49°, while the treaty of Utrecht was supposed 
to affect it, as part of Louisiana, and before we had 
acquired another title by the acquisition of Florida. 
Since then, it has been ascertained that that treaty 
never extended to Oregon; and we have strength- 
ened and perfected our claim by another purcha.se. 
It is for these reasons, that I confine myself to what 
has passed between the two Governments, with a 
view to ascertain our present obligations, and omit 
the considerations presented by the honorable Sen- 
ator from Georgia. I will barely remark, however, 
that in the far most important fact to which he re- 
'fers, as affecting the extent of our claim — to wit: 
the latitude of tlie source of the Columbia river — 
he is under a misapprehension. He put it at 49°. 
But it is far north of that. It is navigable by ca- 
noes to the Three Forks, about the latitude of 52° 
How far beyond that is its head spring, I know not. 

Mr. Greenhow, in his work on Oregon — a work 
marked with talent, industry, and caution — has 
explained how this misapprehension respecting the 
parallel of 49° originated. He has brought for- 
ward proofs, both positive and negative, to show 
that no such line was established by the treaty of 
Utrecht, nor by commissaries, named to carry its 
provisions into effect. I shall not go over the sub- 
ject, but beg leave to refer the gentlemen, who 
maintain the contrary opinion, to the investiga- 
tions they will find in that work. The assertion, 
however, has been so peremptorily made, and the 
conclusions drawn from it, if true, and if the line 



extended to Oregon, would discredit so large a 
portion of our title to that country, that I may be 
pardoned for briefly alluding to one or two consid- 
erations, which seem to me to demonstrate the er- 
ror respecting this assumed line of parallel of 49°, 
at any rate in its extension to Oregon. 

It will be perceived, sir, that there are two 
questions involved in this matter: one a purely 
historical question, whether commissaries acting 
under the treaty of Utrecht, established the parallel 
of 49° as the boundary between the French and 
English possessions upon this continent; and the 
other a practical one, v/hether such a line was ex- 
tended west to the Pacific ocean. 

As to the first, sir, I refer honorable Senators to 
Mr. Greenhow's work, and to the authorities he 
quotes. I do not presume to speak authoritatively 
upon the question, but I do not hesitate to express 
my opinion that Mr. Greenhow has made out a 
strong case; and my own impression is, that such 
a line was not actually and ofRcially established. 
Still, sir, I do not say that it is a point, upon which 
there may not be differences of opinion; nor diat, 
however it may be ultimately determined, the so- 
lution of the matter will discredit the judgment of 
any one. This, Iwwever, has relation to the line 
terminating with the Hudson Bay possessions; 
and, as I have observed, the fact is a mere ques- 
tion of history, without the least bearing upon our 
controversy with England. 

I have, however, one preliminary remark to make 
in this connexion, and it is this: let him who as- 
serts that our claim west of the Rocky mountains 
is bounded by the parallel of 49°, prove it. The 
burden is upon him, not upon vis. If commissaries 
under the treaty of Utrecht established it, produce 
their award. Proof of it, if it exists, is to be found 
in London or Paris. Such an act was not done 
without leaving the most authentic evidence be- 
hind it. Produce it. When was the award made? 
What were its terms .'' What were its circumstan- 
ces ? Why, a suit between man and man for an 
indi of land, would not be decided by such evidence 
as this, especially discredited as it is, in any court 
of the United States. The party claiming under it 
would be told. There is better evidence in yourpoicer. 
Seek it in London or Paris, and bring forirard the cer- 
tified copy of the proceedings of the co7nmissioners. 
This is equally the dictate of common sense and of 
common law, and there is not always the same 
union between those high tribunals, as many know, 
to their cost. Let no man, therefore, assume this 
line as a barrier to his country's claim without 
proving it. 

This line is first historically made known in the 
negotiations between our Government and that of 
England by Mr. Madison, in a despatch to Mr. 
Monroe in 1804. Mr. Madison alludes to an his' 
torical notice he had somewhere found, stating that 
commissioners under the treaty of Utrecht had es- 
tablished the line of 49° as the boundary of the 
British and Fi-ench possessions, thus fixing that par- 
allel as the northern boundary of Louisiana. I 
have examined this despatch, and I find that he ' 
speaks doubtfully respecting the authenticity of 
this notice; and desires Mr. Monroe, before he 
made it the basis of a proposition, to ascertain if 
the facts were truly stated, as the means of doing ; 
so were not to be found in this country. Mr. Mon- 
roe, however, could have made no investigation; or 



if lie did so, ic nrast Tiave been unsatisfactoiy, for 
he transmits the j)roposition substantially in the 
words of the historian Douglas, from whom, prob- 
ably, Mr, Madison acquired this notice, without 
reference to any authority, either historical or dip- 
lomatic, 

I cannot find, that the British Government ever 
took the slightest notice of the assertion respecting 
this incident, growing out of the treaty of Utrecht, 
though it has iDcen referred to more than once by 
•our diplomatic agents, in tlieir communications to 
the British authorities since that period. 

But in late years, it has disappeared from the 
■correspondence, and neither party has adverted to 
it, nor relied upon it. It is strange, indeed, that in 
this body we should now assume the existence of 
a fact like this, supposed to have a most important 
bearing upon the rights of the parties, when the 
able men to whose custody the maintenance of 
these rights has been recently committed, have to- 
tally abandoned it in their arguments and illustra- 
tions. The assumption was originally an errone- 
ous one — certainly so, so far as respects Oregon; 
but while it was believed to be true, the conse- 
quences were rightfully and lionestly carried out 
by Our Government, and the line was claimed as 
a boundary. But our Government is now better 
informed, as the British Government, no doubt, al- 
ways were, and thence their silence upon the sub- 
ject; and the titles of both parties are investigated 
without refereiice to this historical error, or to the 
■position in which it temporarily placed them. 

The ti-eaty of Utrecht never refers to the parallel 
of 49°, and the boundaries it proposed to establish 
were those between the French and English colo- 
nies, including the Hudson Bay Company in Can- 
dida. The charter of the Hudson Bay Company 
granted to the proprietors all the " lands, coun- 
tries, and territories," upon the waters discharging 
■themselves into Hudson's Bay. At the date of the 
treaty of Utrecht, which was in 1713, Great Brit- 
ain claimed nothing west of those " lands, coun- 
tries, and territories,'" and of course there was no- 
thing to divide between her and France w-est of 
that line. 

Again, in 1?13, the northwestern coast was al- 
most a terra incognita — a blank upon the map of 
the world, England then neither knew a foot of 
it, nor claimed a foot of it. By adverting to the 
letter of Messrs. Gallatin and Rush, communi- 
cating an accotmt of their interview with Messrs. 
"Goulburn and Robinson, British conimissionei-e, 
dated October 20th, 1818, and to the letter of Mr. 
Pakenhara to Mr, Calhoun, dated September 
12th, 1844, it will be seen that the commencement 
of the British claim is effectively limited to the 
discoveries of Captain Cook in 1778. How, then, 
■could a boundary have been established fifty years 
before, in a region where no Englishman had ever 
penetrated, and to which England had never as- 
serted a pretension ? And yet the assumption, that 
the parallel of 49 degrees was established by the 
treaty of Utrecht, as a line between France and 
England, in those unknown regions, necessarily 
■involves these inconsistent conclusions. But be- 
sides, if England^ as a party to the treaty of 
Utrecht, established this line running to the west- 
•ern ocean as the northern boundary of Louisiana, 
■what possible claim has she now south of that line ? 
The very fact of her existing pretensions, how- 



ever unfounded these may be, shows that she con- 
siders herself no party to such a line of division. 
It shows, in fact, that no line was run; for if it had 
been, the evidence of it would be in the English 
archives, and, in truth, would be known to the 
world without contradiction. . The establishment 
of a boundary between two great nations is no 
hidden fact; and we may now safely assume, that 
the parallel of 49° never divided the Oregon terri- 
toi-y, and establishes no barrier to the rights by 
which we claim it. The assertion was originally 
a mere dictum, now shown to be vmfounded. 

The Senator from Maine has adverted likewise 
to the treaty of 1763, as furnishing additional tes- 
timony in favor of this line. That treaty merely 
provides, that the confines lelween the Biitish and 
French dominions shall be fixed irrevocably by a line 
draion along the middle of the river Mississippi, from 
its source, &fc. This is the whole provision that 
bears upon this subject. I do not stop to analyze 
it. That cannot be necessary. It is obvious that 
this arrangement merely established tbe Mississippi 
river as a boundary between the two countries, 
leaving their other claims precisely as they for- 
merly existed. And this, too, was fifteen years 
before the voyage of Captain Cook, the com- 
mencement of the British title on the northwest 
coast. Briefly, sir, there are six reasons, which 
prove that this ].iarallel was never established un- 
der the treaty of Utrecht, so far at least as regards 
Oregon. 

1. It is not shown that any line was established 
on the parallel of 49 to the Pacific ocean. 

If the fact be so, the proper evidence is at Paris 
or London, and should be produced. 

2. The country on the northwestern coast was 
then unknown, and I believe unclaimed; or, at any 
rate, no circumstances had arisen to call in question 
any claim to it. 

3. The British negotiators in 1826, and their 
Minister here in 1844, fixed, in effect, upon the 
voyage of Captain Cook in 1778 as the commence- 
ment of the British title in what is now called 
Oregon. 

4. The treaty of Utrecht provides for the estab- 
lishment of a line between the French and English 
colonies, including the Hudson Bay Company. 
The British held nothing west of that company's 
possessions, which, by the charter, includes only 
the-" lands, countries, and territories, "on the wa- 
ters running into Hudson's Bay. 

5. If England established the line to the Pacific 
ocean, she can have no claim south of it; and this 
kind of argumentum ad hominem becomes con- 
clusive. And, let me add, that I owe this argu- 
ment to my friend from Missouri, [Mr. Atchison,] 
to whose remarks upon Oregon the Senate listened 
with profit and pleasure some days since. 

6. How could France and England claim the 
country to the Pacific, so as to divide it between 
them in 1730, when, as late as 1790, the British 
Government, by the Nootka convention, expressly 
i-ecognised the Spanish title to that country, and 
claimed only the use of it for its own subjects, in 
common with those of Spain? 

I now ask, sir, what right has any American 
statesman , or what right has any British states- 
man, to contend that our claim, whatever it may 
be, is not just as good north of this line as it is 
south of it? When this .qxiestion is answered to 







my satisfaction, I, for one, will consent to stop 
there. But until then, I am amon:^ those, who 
mean to march, if we can, to the Russian boun- 
dary. 

Now, Mr. President, it is the very ground as- 
sumed by the Senator from North Carolina, and 
by other Senators, respecting this parallel of 49°, 
together with the course of this discussion, which 
furnishes me with the most poweiful argument 
against the reference of this controversy to arbi- 
tration. 

I have shown, I trust, that there is no such line 
of demarcation, established under the treaty of 
Utrecht, extending to the Oregon territory, and 
the misapprehension, whence the opinion arose. 

While such a conviction prevailed, it was fairly 
and properly assumed by the Government as the 
northern boundary of the Oregon claim, before the 
Florida treaty. Since that treaty I consider the 
offers on our part as offers of compromise, not re- 
cognitions of a line, from the resumption of nego- 
tiations by Mr. Rush, who carried our title to 51°, 
to their abandonment in 1827 by Mr. Gallatin, 
who, finding a satisfactory adjustment impossible, 
withdrew the pending offer, and asserted that his 
Government " would consider itself at liberty to 
contend for the full extent of the claims of the Uni- 
ted States. " And for their full extent we do claim. 
And I take the opportunity to tender my small 
tribute of approbation to the general conduct of 
these negotiations by the American Government, 
and their commissioners, and especially to Mr. 
Rush, a citizen as well known for his private worth 
as for his high talents and great public services, and 
who seems to have been the first, as Mr. Green- 
how i-emarks, " to inquire cai-efully into the facts 
of the case." 

And it is not one of the least curious phases of 
this controversy, that down to this very day the 
pretensions of England are either wholly contradic- 
tory, or are shrouded in apparently studied ob- 
scurity. She asserts no exclusive claim anywhere, 
but an equal claim everywhere. 

" A right of joint occupancy in the Oregon terri- 
' tory," says the British Minister in his letter to 
Mr. Calhoun, dated September 12, 1844, " of 
' which right she can be divested with respect to 
' any part of that territory, only by an equal parti- 
' tion of the ivhole between the parties." 

And yet, notwithstanding he refers to the ivhole 
territory, still, in the protocol of the conference at 
Washington, dated September 24, 1844, he refused 
to enter into any discussion respecting the country 
north of 49°, because it u'os xinderstood by the Bntish 
Government to form the basis of negotiation on the 
part of the United States. Thus, on the 12tli of 
September, recognising our right to an equal, un- 
divided moiety of Oregon, and two v.reeks after 
coolly claiming the nortliern half of it, as a fact not 
even to be called into question, and then offering to 
discuss with us the mutual claims of the two coun- 
tries to the southern half! 

Well, sir, influenced by the motives I have 
stated, and by a desire to terminate this tedious 
controversy, this parallel of 49°, sometimes with, 
and sometimes without an accessory, has been 
four times offered by us to the British Government, 
and four times rejected, and once indignantly so; 
and three times withdrawn. Twice withdrawii in 
the^very terras — once by Mr. Gallatin, November 



IS, 1826, who withdrew a proposition made by- 
Mr. Rush, and once during the present Admin- 
istration; and once withdrawn in effect, thou"-b 
without the use of that word, by Mr. Gallatin,°in 
1827, who announced to the British negotiator* 
" that his Government did not hold itself bound 
• hereafter, in consequence of any proposal, which 
' it had made for a line of separation between the- 
' ten-itories of the two nations beyond the Rocky 
' mountains; but would consider itself at liberty to 
' contend for the full extent of the claim.s of the 
'United States." 

The Senator from Louislaiia will perceive, that 
he was in error yesterday, when he said, that no- • 
offer of a compromise had ever been withdrawn^ 
till the withdrawal made by the present Adminis- 
tration, unless such offer had been announced as- 
an ultimatum. But without recurring to any au- 
thority upon this subject, it is evident, that if a 
nation is forever bound by an oiler of compromise,, 
no prudent nation would ever make such an offer. 
Tliere would be no reciprocity in such a condition 
of things. In controversies respecting territorj'^ 
each party would hold on to its extreme limit; for 
if it made an ofler less than that, it would aban- 
don, in fact, so much of its own pretensions, leav- 
ing those of its opponent in their full integrity. 

Su'ch, sir, is the state of our controversy with 
England; and yet honorable Senators upon this 
floor, able lawyers and jurists also, maintain that 
this line, thus offered, and refused, and withdrawn,. 
is now in effect the limit of our claim, and that 
we are bound honorably , and morally , and they say,, 
at the risk of the censure of the world,, to receive it 
it as our boundary whenever England chooses so to 
accept it. This is all very strcuige, and would 
seem to me so untenable, as not to be worthy of 
examination, if it were not urged by such high au- 
thorities. Let us look at it. 

The honorable Senator from Maryland has en- 
tered more fully into this branch of the subject 
than any other member of this body, and I shall 
therefore confine my inquiries to his remarks. 

There are two propositions connected with this 
matter, which it is proper to consider separately- 
The first is, the obligation upon the President, 
agreeably to his own views, to accept this rejected 
offer, if it comes back to him; and the other is, the 
obligation upon the country, and upon this body,, 
as one of its depositaries of the treaty-making 
power, to confirm the act of the President, s'.iould 
it come here for confirmation. What, sir, is a 
compromise .' It is an ofler made by one party to 
the other to take less than his whole claim, M'ith a 
view to an amicable adjustment of the controversy, 
whatever this may be. The doctrine of compro- 
mises is founded upon universal reason; and its 
obligations, I believe, are everywhere the same, 
whether in the codes of municipal or general law. 
An offer made in this spirit never furnishes the 
slightest presumption against the claim of the party 
making it; and for the best of reasons, not only 
t!;at this amicable process of settlement may be 
encouraged and extended, but because it will often 
happen, that both individuals and nations ma}'' be 
willing to sacrifice a portion of what they consider 
their just rights, rather than encounter the certain 
expense and trouble, and the uncertain issue of 
litigation, whether that litigation be in a court of 
justice, or upon a battle-field,. Such is the genesal 



principle; and the practical operation of any otlier 
would hold one of the parties forever bound, and 
leave the other forever free. One makes his offer, 
and must adhere to it, while the other declines it, 
or refuses it, and still may hold on to it indefi- 
nitely. 

Surely it cannot be necessary to pursue this 
illustration farther. Such a construction as this, 
which plays fast and loose at the same time, carries 
with it its own refutation, however respectable the 
authority, which attempts to support it. But, revert- 
ing to the obligation of the President, what says 
the honorable Senator from Maryland ? He says 
that the President — not James K. Polk, but the 
Chief Magisti-ate of the nation — havhig felt an ira- 
phed obligation to renew the offer of 49°, is now 
bound in all time to accept it, and, I suppose, pa- 
tiently to wait for it, till the demand comes. I 
must say, that in this brief abstract of the Presi- 
dent's views, the Senator has hardly done justice 
to him. I do not stand here to say, what the Pres- 
ident will do, should Great Britain propose to ac- 
cept the parallel of 49° as the boundary between 
the two countries. In the first place, it would be 
to argue upon a gratuitous assumption . I have 
not the slightest reason to believe, that the British 
Government have given any intimation that it will 
ever come back to that line. But, in the second 
place, if it should, what then ? The incipient step 
is for the President to take, and I should leave the 
matter here, without remark, had not the Senator 
from Maryland, and the Senator from North Car- 
olina, and other Senators, labored to impress the 
conviction, that the President ought, and must, and 
would, close with the British proposition to accept 
the parallel of 49°, should it be made. I shall not 
analyze the words of the President's Message, but 
content myself with a genex-al allusion to it. Truth 
is seldom promoted by picking out particular 
phrases, and placing them in juxtaposition. The 
President says — and it is evident the whole 
Message was carefully prepared — that though he 
entertained the settled conviction, that the Brit- 
ish title to any portion of Oregon could not 
be maintained; yet, in deference to the action 
of his predecessors, and to what had been done, 
and in consideration, that the pending negotia- 
tion had been commenced on the basis of compro- 
mise, he determined, in a spirit of compromise, to 
offer a part of what had been offered before — the 
parallel of 49°, v/ithout the navigation of the Co- 
lumbia river, 'He says this proposition was re- 
jected, and in what terms we all know, and that 
he immediately withdrew it, and then asserted 
our title to the whole of Oregon, and maintained 
it by irrefragable arguments. Now, sir, I am 
not going to argue with any man, who seeks to 
deduce from this language a conviction in the mind 
of the President, that he considers himself under 
the slightest obligation to England to accept the 
parallel of 49°, should she desire it as a boundary. 
In this account of his proceedings, he is explain- 
ing to his countrymen the operations of his own 
mind, the reasons which induced him to make 
this offer, made, as he says, "in deference alone 
to what had been done by my predecessors, and 
the implied obligations their acts seemed to im- 
pose." What obligations? None to England, 
for none had been created; but the obligations im- 
posed upon a prudent statesman to look at the 



actions and views of his predecessors, and not to 
depart from them without good reasons. The ob- 
vious meaning is this: I found the negotiations 
pending; after an interval of almost twenty years, 
they had been renewed; they began on the basis 
of compromise, and though three times a compro- 
mise had been offered to England and rejected, 
and though she had not the slightest right to claim, 
or even to expect it would be offered to her again, 
and though I determined, that the same proposi- 
tion should not be offered to her, still, as a proof 
of the moderation of the United States, I deemed 
it expedient to make her another offer, less than 
the preceding one, which a quarter of a century 
before she had rejected. A curious obligation 
this, if it has reference to the rights of England, 
and a curious mode of fulfilling it ! If he (the 
President) were under any obligation to her, the 
obligation was complete, to make the offer as it had 
been made before. And she has the same right 
to claim the navigation of the Columbia river, that 
she has to claim the parallel of 49° as a boundary; 
and the honorable Senator from Louisiana has 
placed the matter upon this very ground. As- 
suming, that the obligation referred to by the 
President was an obligation to England, he thinks 
the President failed in his duty in not carrying out 
his own views of the national duties. 

Why, sir, if offers of compromise were to be 
made till doomsday, the rights of both parties would 
remain in their integrity. And what offer creates 
this implied obligation ? Several offers have been 
made by our Government to that of England for 
the adjustment of this controversy. Which creates 
this obligation, one of them, or all of them.' But 
it is very clear, sir, that neither of them creates it. 
The common-sense view of this subject is the true 
one in this case, as in most other cases. The party 
offering says to its adversary, I will consent to that 
line. If you consent to it, our controversy will be 
amicably adjusted. The only obligation created 
by this act is, to allow reasonable time to the other 
party for decision, and then faithfully to adhere to 
the terms, should they be accepted. If unreason- 
ably delayed, still more if rejected, both parties are 
thrown back upon their original position, unem- 
barrassed by this attempt at conciliation. 

But, sir, the President is a judge of his own duties. I am 
not afraid to leave them with him — they are in safe keep- 
ing. Should the ((uestion respecting this parallel ever be 
presented to him for decision, I have a perfect conviction, 
that whether he decide for it or against it, or refer it to the 
consideration of the Senate, he will fulfil his responsible 
duties with a eonseientious regard to the high obligations 
hs is under to the country and to the Constitution. But we, 
too, have duties to perform, and among these may be the 
necessity of deciding for ourselves tlie nature and extent of 
this obligation upon the nation. 

I do not speak now of any considerations of expediency, 
wliieh may operate upon the decision of this matter. There 
are none which will operate upon me. But I assume to 
myself no right to prescribe the course of others, whether of 
the President or of the Senate, or to judge it when taken. 
But 1 reject this doctrine of a national obligation to England. 
I deny the right of any one to commit the faith of this coun- 
try to a rejected line — to bind us, leaving our opponent un- 
bound — to convert a mere offer of compromise into the sur- 
render of a claim ; to change the established opinions and 
usages of the world upon tliis subjoet. It seems to me, that 
a cause cannot be strong which needs such auxiUaries for 
its support. 

But, sir, this doctrine, as I before observed, and the course 
of the remarks by which it is endeavored to maintain it, 
furnish to me conclusive arguments against the reference of 
this controversy to arbitration. Here, at home, in this co- 
ordinate branch of the national legislature, we are told, and 



8 



almost ex cathedra too. that we have concluded ourselves, 
by tliis offer of 49°, and that upon tliat paralUl nuisi lie our 
boundary, when England makes up her mind to come to it. 
Now, in this state of the matter, what would be the effict 
of an arbitration .' The Secretary of State, in his answer to 
the Briti.-h Minister, has ably and truly exposed the ten- 
dency of this process of adjustmeut, whether public or pri- 
vate. Its tendency is not to settle the actual rights of the 
parties, but to compromise them. To divide, and not to 
decide. We all know this, and he who runs may read it in 
the history of almost every arbitration, within the circle of 
his observation. Though, as I have already said, the otlcrs 
of compromise we have made to England ought not to furnish 
the slightest prctsumptiou against the validity of our whole 
claim, and would not,before any well-regulated judicial tribu- 
nal in Christendom, yetcommitour cause to arbitration, and 
where are we .? We might as well throw to the winds all the 
facts, and arguments, and illustrations, upon which we bui;d 
our claim, and say to the arbitrators, do as you please, we aje 
at your mercy. For this they would do at any rate. They 
would not lieed your views, but they would turn to the history 
of tlie controversy, and to the course of the parties. They 
would measure what each had offered, and would split tbe 
difference to the ninth part of a hair. They would assume, 
that the American claim goes to the 49th parallel, and tlie 
British claim to the Columbia river; and they would add, 
and subtract, and multiply, and divide, till all this process 
would end in a tolerably equal partition of what no one 
upon this floor denies, and what every American, or almost 
every American, as firmly believes makes part of his coun- 
try, as does the tomb at Mount Vernon, or the grave at 
tlie Hermitage, where countless generations of men will 
come as to places of pilgrimage— not, indeed, to worship, 
bat to think upon the days and the deeds of the patriots 
and warriors, who sleep below. You could not find a 
sovereign nor a subject, a State nor a citizen in Christ- 
endom, who, in such a controversy between two great 
nations, would not rather decide with the dividers, than 
with the titles. Well, sir, I agree fully, that if we wish 
to get rid of all this matter vvithout regard to the why 
or the how, we may safely commit it to the custody of arbi- 
trators. Their decision, though we should know it before- 
hand, might be considered a plaster for our wounded honor. 
A poor one, indeed, which would leave a most unsightly 
scar. But, in reality, sir, this course of action would be 
open and obvious to ourselves and to the world. Its motives 
and its results would be equally palpable. We should lose 
much in interest, and much more in character. For myself, 
I would far rather divide with England this portion of the 
territory, tlian commit our rights to arbitiation. There 
would be some magnanimity in such a procedure. But to 
take shelter behind this form of trial is to resort to a misera- 
ble subterfuge, which, under the prete.xt of an equal adjust- 
ment, would be but a surrender. If, then, we se/iously be- 
lieve in our own claims, even to 49°, and sincerely desire to 
maintain them, we must unite in approving the rejection, by 
the President, of this pacific means of transfening to England 
a valuable part of our common country. 

Mr. President, the honorable Senator from North Carolina, 
not now in his seat, called tliose, who believe our title to 
54° 40' to be clear, the ultra friends of the President, and, I 
understood him, he claimed to be his true friend, saving him 
from those imprudent ones. As I find myself in this cate- 
gory, I am obnoxious to the charge, and with the natural 
instinct of self-defence, I desire to repel it. We are ultra 
friends, because we do not stop at 49°. I have already shown, 
that there is no stopping- place on that parallel — no true rest 
for an American foot. The Senator himself considers our 
title to that line clear and indisputable, and I understood 
him that he would maintain it, come what might. Well, 
if it is found that the treaty of Utrecht no more extended to 
Oregon than to the moon, whatever other boundary may 
be sought or found, it cannot be that purely gratuitous boun- 
dary — the parallel of 49°. And as the Senator from North 
Carolina must leave it, where mil he find a better barrier 
than the Russian possessions.' But he says, also, that though 
our title to the country north of 49° is not indisputable, still 
it is better than any other title. Now, I will appeal to the 
Senator's charity — no, not to his charity, that is not necessary 
— but I will appeal to his sense of justice, to say, whether 
such a difference of opinion as exists between himself and 
me on this subject can justly be characterized as ultraism on 
my part. Our title, he says, is the best — not indisputable ; but 
still the best. The same evidence, which produced this con- 
viction in his mind, produces a stronger one in mine; and 
this is tlie tribute, which every day's experience pays to hu- 
man fallibility. We are differently constituted, and differ- 
ently affected by the same facts and arguments. While the 
honorable Senator stands upon the parallel of 49°, as tlie pre- 



cise line, where our questionable and unquestionable titles 
meet, tliere aregniany, and I am amung the number, who 
carry our unquestionable title to tbe Russian boundary in 
one direction, and some, i)i'rhaps. though I have not found 
one,. who carry it in another direction tj the Columbia river. 
It seems to me in bad taste, to say the least of it, for any 
member to assume his own views as infallible, and to say to 
all the worid, who ditf;trfroin lihn, whether on the right hand 
or on the left, My opinion is the trut' standard of orthodoxy^ 
and everyone, who d::parts from it is a heretic and a.n ultra. 
Thus to stigmatize a large portion of the Senate, is not, I am 
sure, the intention of the Senator; but such is, in fact and 
effect, the direct tendency of his remarks. We are ultra, 
because, to use a somewhat quaint but a forcible apothegm, 
we u-ill not meastcrc our corn l/y Ais bushel. Why, sir, we 
have each a bushel of our own, given us by the Creator, and 
till the Senator's is sealed and certiiied by a higher author- 
ity, we beg leave to keep our own, and to measure our 
duties by it. 

I did not understand the precise object of some of the re- 
marks of the Senator from North Caroiina,thnugh I had less 
difficulty respecting tlie remarks themselves. He told us 
the President nowhere claimed 54° 40'; and I presume he 
thus contended in order to show that the President might 
consistently accept any boundary south of that parallel. I 
again disclaim all interference with the President in the ex- 
ecution of his duties. I do not think, that what he will do 
in a gratuitous case, should furnish the subject ol' specula- 
tion upon this floor. I know what I will do, and that is 
enough for me ; and as I took the opportunity, three years 
ago, in a public and printed address, at Fort Wa} ne, to de- 
fine my position in this matter, before I became a member 
of this body, my allusion to it here cannot be deemed the 
premature expression of my opinion. I then said : 

" Our claim to the country west of the Rocky mountains 
' is as undeniable as our right to Bunker's Hill and New 
' Orleans ; and who will call in question our title to these 
' blood-stained fields ? And I ti ust it will be maintained 
' with a vigor and promptitude equal to its justice. War is 
' a great evil, but not so great as national dishonor. Little 
' is gained by yielding to insolent and unjust pretensions. 
' It is better to defend the first inch of territory than thejast. 
' Far better, in dealing with England, to resist aggression, 
'whether of impressment, of search, or of territory, when 
' first attempted, than to yield in the hope, that forbearance 
' will be met in a just spirit, and will lead to an amicable 
' compromise. Let us have no red lines upon tlie map of 
' Oregon. Let us hold on to the integrity of our just claim. 
'And if war come, be it so ; I do not believe it will be long 
' avoided, unless prevented by intestine difliculties in tlie 
' Britii^h Empire. And wo be to us, if we flatter ourtelves it 
' can be arre-ted by any system of concession. Of all delu- 
' sions, this would be the most fatal, and we should awake 
' from it a dishonored, if not a ruined people." 

Now the Oregon I claim, is all Oregon, and no vote of 
mine in this Senate will surrender one inch of it to England. 
But tlie Senator from North Carolina says, that the Oregon 
the President claims is an Oregon of his own, and not tlie 
country, which now excites the anxious solicitude of the 
American people. And if it were so, is it the duty of a 
friend, I may almost say claiming to be an exclusive one, to 
hold up to his countrymen the W'ord of promise of their 
Chief Magristrate, thus kept to the ear, but not to the hope ? 
But it is not so. The honorable Senator has been led uito 
an error — ;i palpable error. The Preside«t says the British 
pretensions could not be maintained to any 'portion of the 
Oregon territory. He says, also, tliat our title to the whole 
of the Oregon territory is maintained by irrefragable facts 
and arguments. He says British laws have been extended 
throughout the whole of Oregon. Now, sir, has any man a 
right to s!iy, tliat the President falters in his purpose, by 
talking of the whole of a country, when he does not mean 
the whole of it.' No, sir ; the idea never occurred to him, 
never crossed his mind. VVhen he said Oregon, he meant 
so ; and I have no more doubt, than I have of my existence, 
that be believes as firmly in the American title to it, as he 
believes he is now the Chief Magistrate of the United 
States. 

If it were possible, that this proposition needed support, 
it would be easily found. The communications of tlie Sec- 
retary of State, are the communications of the President, 
written by his direction and submitted for his approbation, 
and never sent without his supervision, and very seldom, I 
imagine, without emendations by him. The correspondence 
with the British Minister, laid before us at the commence- 
ment of the session, was doubly his. His, because carried 
on by his Secretary of State, with a foreign Government, 
and his because communicated to Congress and his country, 
as the depository of his views and measures. Well, sir, in 



9 



e letter from the Secretarj' of State to Mr. Pakenham, da- 
d July 12, 1845, Mr. Buchanan says: 
" Upon the whole, from tlie most careful and ample ex- 
mination which the undersigned has been able to bestow 
ipon the subject, he Is satisfied that the Spanish American 
itle now held by the United States, embracing the whole 
territory between the paraUels of 42 degrees and 54 degrees 
lO minutes, is the best title in existence to this entire re- 
^on," &c. 
And he adds . 

'• Notwithstanding such was and still is the opinion of the 
resident," &c. 

Human words and human deeds are worthless to disclose 
iraan opinions, if the Oregon of the President is not tlie 
regon we claim and hope to secure. 

The Senator from North Carolina has presented to us some 
culiar views of the President's position and duties, and has 
tduced his futm-e com-se, not from his Message, but from 
•.trinsic circumstances, acts of omission and of commission, 
he calls them, by which the language of the President is 
be conti-olled,and his further course in this controversy 
gulated. I doubt the propriety, as well as the wisdom, of 
1 tiiis, either as regards the President, the Senate, or the 
iuntry. If successful in his declarations or expositions, 
hichcver they may be, I do not see what practical advaa- 
ge the Senator expected to gain. The President would 
ill have to perform his own duties, and we to psrform ours, 
ithout reference to the embarrassments created by tliis 
)vel mode of reading the past views and tlie future course 
tlie Chief Magistrate. In the mean time, what better plan 
mid be devised to excite the public mind, and to rouse sus- 
cions, which would fly upon tlie wings of the wind to the 
rthest verge of the countiy .' No such intention ever en- 
red the mind of the honorable Senator ; but I submit to 
m, if, in its very nature, this process is not calculated to 
;oduce such a result, and whether, in fact, it has not pro- 
iced it. And yet, it seems to me, that the reasons in sup- 
)rt of it are utterly insufficient to justify the conclusions. 
M^hat are these reasons .' I will just touch some of tlieni, 
iving no time to pursue the subject. 

There were two acts of commission: one wastheofFer he- 
re made of the parallel of 49° as a compromise ; and the 
her was the expression of Mr. Buchanan in his last letter 
the British Minister, dated August 30th, 1845, that the 
resident hoped the controversy would be terminated with- 
it a collision. 

Now, sir, as to the first. I trust I have shown, that what- 
'er course the President may pursue respecting the parallel 
■ 49°, as a boundary hereafter, his duty will be before him, 
lembarrassed by the offer heretofore made, and that, conse- 
lently, that circumstance is no key to unlock the hidden 
ture. 

And as to tlie second. I will ask the honorable Senator 
upon reflection, he thinks the expression of the President's 
)pc is really entitled to this grave consideration. 
It seems to me partly a polite and courteous phrase, and 
irtly the sincere declai'ation of a wish, that some mode 
ight be devised for an amicable adjustment of this matter, 
et us not deprive diplomatists of that hope, vs'hicli carries 
! all forward to the bright recompense of the future. But 
t us not convert tlie expression of it into solid promises, 
ir settled convictions. 

And what are the acts of omission ? One is the neglect to 
commend defensive measures, and the other is a want of 
\nfidenc3 in the chairman of the Committee on Foreign 
slatious. 

And now for tlie first. I presume ere this the honorable 
jnator is aware, that he has entirely misunderstood the 
ews of the Pre.«ident upon this subject. In his Mes- 
.ge, at the commencement of the session, the President 
commended that a force of mounted riflemen should be 
.ised, and also an augmentation of the naval means of the 
)uutry. But later in the session, in conformity with reso- 
tions which originated here, recommendations and esti- 
ates, seen and approvjd by the President, and his in fact, 
jreeably to the constitution of our Executive department, 
ere sent, by the Secretaries of War and of the Navy, to the 
oper committees of the Senate. A bill was reported by 
e Naval Committee for an additional steam force, and was 
)ly and vigorously advocated by the honorable chairman of 
lat committee. ISut it was put to sleep, partly, if not prin- 
pally, I believe, upon the ground that, if you cannot im- 
ediately equip a na\'y, therefore you must not build a ship; 
idif 3-ou do not require an army, therefore you must not raise 
regiment. And the result may well have been taken as an 
idication both by the Naval and Military Committees, that 
le Senate did not deem an augmentation of the defensive 
leans of the country necessary mider the circumstances, 
nd therefore prevented all further action on their part, as 
seless. For I consider the proposition of tlie Navcil Com- 



mittee, thus put to sleep, one of the least objectionable of 
all the measures subiiiitted to us under the sanction of the 
President. I have looked over these estimates, sir, both 
from tlie War and Navy' Departments, and I consider them 
proper and judicious, in the existing state of our relations 
vritli England ; and I will add, the heads of both of those 
departments dischai-ged thtdr responsible duties — for their 
duties were responsible — in a satisfactory manner. 

A brief recapitulationmaynotbe miacceptable, nor unpro- 
fitable. 

The Secretary of War recommended the immediate pas- 
sage of a bill for the new works. 

An appropriation of $300,000 for the fortification and ob- 
struction of channels; and also for field works. 

An appropriation of .f 100,000 for geneial contingencies in 
the field, including the preparation of a pontoon equipage. 

An estimate of the sum of $5,000,000, as necessary for 
fortifications and obstructions, to be appropriated when 
Congress might think the aspect of affairs threatened hos- 
tilities, and then to be placed at the disposition of the Presi- 
dent. 

The estimate for ordnance and ordnance stores amounted 
to $4,279,680— of course to be appropriated as Congress 
might deem proper. 

An addition to the army of so many privates as would 
raise each company to 100 men, thus adding 7,960 men to the 
army. 

Authority to the President to raise 50,000 volunteers, to 
be called into tlie pubUc service for one year, whenever re- 
quired. 

The propositions respecting fortifications and ordnance 
came from the proper bureaus, and the proposition for an 
augmentation of the army and a volunteer force came from 
the commanding general, vi'hose high character and gallant 
services in the field, justly give great weight to his opinions; 
and those propositions were assumed by the Secretary, and 
he became responsible for them. 

The Secretary of the Navy recommended an accumulation 
of naval materials and stores to tlie amount of $1,060,000. 

For the repair and equipment of all the vessels in ordina- 
ry, and of the frigates of the United States, $2,145,000. 

For three steam-frigates, five steam-sloops, and two steam- 
ers of a smaller class, $3,310,000. 

Naval ordnance and stores, $360,000. 

How these estimates were prepared in the Navy Depart- 
ment, the document in my possession does not show. I 
presume they went through the proper bureaus. They came 
to the Senate, however, as the act of the Secretary. 

It is obvious that all these appropriations, in any contin- 
gency, would not be wanted for some time ; and, indeed, 
that the full legislative action upon the subject would await 
the developments growing out of our foreign relations. Or- 
dinary prudence requires that a commencement should be 
immediately made ; to what extent, Congress must judge. 
But it will be remarked, that much the larger portion of 
these estimates is for materials and supplies, which we must 
have, some time or other, and ought to have ere long, let 
the aspect of our foreign affairs be as it may. 

In making this provision, we but anticipate our necessi- 
ties, and the worst that can happen will be, that we shall be 
sooner prepared for a state of things, for which we ought to 
be always prepared. 

As to the mode of receiving this information, it has been 
sanctioned by the practice of the Government for years. 
Congress and its committees have been in the daily habit of 
calling upon the heads of the departments for the necessary 
facts and views in the discharge of their legislative duties. 
And, in all cases like the present, the reports "are submitted 
to the President before being sent here, and thus receive his 
sanction, and they are often changed by his directions. This 
is well known to all, who are acquainted with theroutme of 
our executive department. 

To return now, sir, to this act of omission, this neglect to 
recommend proper measures of defence, by which the Pres- 
ident's ^iews are to be interpreted, as I understand, in tliis 
manner. The President recommends no measui-es of de- 
fence. Therefore he considers the comitry in no danger. 
Therefore he intends to yield to the parallel of 49°, which 
the British Government intends to demand ; and thus there 
will be no war. Now, sir, more than two months before 
this position was taken by the honorable Senator, the Pres- 
ident had recommended by his Secretaries an addition to 
the army of almost 8,000 men, the organization of 50,000 
volunteers, the removal of the lunitations respecting naval 
establishments, that he might be able to direct such an aug- 
mentation of the seamen of the navy as circumstances might 
require, and appropriations for military purposes to the 
amount of §9,679,680 ; and for naval purposes to the amount 
of $6,515,000— making in the whole $16,195,580, in addition 
to the recommendations in Ms Message at the commence- 



10 



meiit of the session, and to the ordinaiy estimates of the 
department. 

It is unnecessary to pursue this topic. What 'vor may be 
the just construction of the President's nieaninij, which to 
me is e.xceidingly ciear, it is now obvious that this act of 
omission bccouios an act of commission, and proves that 
the Pre.-idont is by no means tranquil respectiug the con- 
dition of the country. 

As to tlie alleged want of Executive confidence in the 
chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations, I hardly 
know how to speak of it becoiiungly, when urged in this 
connexion. Were the fact so, it would seem very .-trange 
to me, and I should think the President very badly advised, 
to withhold a proper confidence from one of his truest and 
most efficient friends upon tills floor, and one, too, who, 
from his position at the head of a most important commit- 
tee, was officially entitled to it. 

No one, who has witnessed the energy, the talent, and the 
promptitude of the honorable ehainiiau. can doubt the ser- 
vice he has rendered this Administration', nor the confidence 
he deserves — a confidence, indeed, demanded more for the 
sake of the public interest, than for his own sake. 

But, sir, I have reason to know that the Senator from 
North Cardlina is in error in all this ; tliat tljis deduction 
from extrinsic circumstances is but anotlier proof, that truth 
is not always attained when sought by indirect and remote 
facts. I have reason to know, that the chairman of the Com- 
mittee on Foreign Relations communicates freely with tiie 
President, and enjoys his confidence. 

And what proof of estrangement between these high func- 
tionaries is furnished by the honorable Senator from North 
Carolina.' Why, thus stands the case : The honorable chair- 
man stated that the opuiionsof the Presidenthad undergone 
no change; but being interrogated upon the subject, he an- 
swereil, that the records, and the records alone, were the 
sources of his information. 

It seems to me it would better become our position if we 
all sougln the views of the President, so far as we ougiit to 
seek them, in the same authentic documents. It would 
save a world of unprofitable conjecture. Now, sir, what 
does all this amount to.' Why, to tliis: the President told 
the Senator from Ohio no more, as to his future course than 
he told the country and Congress in his Message. It would 
be strange if he had. The avowal of a line of policy, when 
the proper circumstances are before him, is the duty of a 
sound and practical statesman. But I should much doubt 
the wi:dom of the Chief Magistrate of a great country, who 
should sit down to speculate upon future and remote contin- 
gencies, affecting the public welfare, with a view even to the 
decision upon his own course, and stiU less with a view to 
its annunciation to the world. 

Let me, then, ask the Senator, if he thinks it is the duty 
of the chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations to 
put gratuitous questions to tiie President, in order tliat he 
may be able to come here and declare what the Executive 
will do in such and such a contingency, which may never 
happen ; or which, if it do happen, may bring with it cir- 
cumstances, that may change the whole aspect of the ques- 
tion .' But I forbear, sir. I consider it unnecessary to pur- 
sue this question further. 

A considerable portion of the argument of the Senator 
from North Carolina was devoted to prove that the Message 
of the President did not justify these anticipations of war, 
which it api)ears to myself andto other Senators to do. Not 
tliat he called in question the natural tendency of the meas- 
ures recommended by the President, nor the fair construc- 
tion of his language ; but he controlled these by tlie extrinsic 
facts to which I have advert"d. I shall say nothing more 
upon this subject, but I shall fortify my own opinion by the 
views of other members of this body, who are entitled to 
more weight than I am. 

The honorable Senator from South'Carolinasaid "thatUie 
recommendation in tlie Message is founded upon the con- 
viction, that there is no hope of compromise of the difficul- 
ties growing out of the President's Message is too clear to 
admit of any doubt." 

After some further remark.s, showing the opinions enter- 
tained of the dangers of war, he adds : " Entertaining those 
opinions, we were compelled to oppose notice, because it 
was necessary to prevent an appeal to arms, aud insure the 
peaceful settlement of the question." 

And the Senator from Maryland said : " We have all felt, 
Mr. President, tiiat atone time at least — I trust tliat time is 
past — the nation was in imminent danger. From the mo- 
ment that the President of the United States deemed it 
right and becoming, in the very outset of his official career, 
to announce to the world that the title to the northwest 
territory was clear and indisputable, down to his Mes- 
sage in December last, I could not see how war was to be 
averted." 



And tlie honorable Senator from Louisiana, in his speed! 
yesterday, advanced the same opinion upon this subject. 

And the Senator from Georgia also expressed the convic 
tion that " tliis resolution, based as it is on the President': 
Message, is a distinct intimation to Groat Britain that thi; 
matter must be settled, and in a manner acceptable to us, o 
that at the expiration of that time we will take forcible pos 
session of the whole country," which of course meansi 
war. 

And he adds that "the Senator from North Carolina tell: 
us, that the President is waiting at the open doorof hiscabi 
net, ready to adjust this controversy, and to preserve tin 
peace of the country." " Sir," he adds, " even with the aii 
of the Senator's optics, I cannot see him there." And hn 
adds also, if these things w:'re so, referring to the view.j o< 
the Senator from North Carolina respecting the President':' 
Message, " I should be sorry to do so." And I fully concuii' 
nith him in the sentiment. 

Now, sir, I shall not thrust myself into this dispute — 

" Non nostrum inter vos tantas componcre lites." 
During the progress of this discussion, the blessings c 
peace and the horrors of war have been frequently presente > 
to us with the force of truth, and sometimes with the fet( 
veney of an excited imagination. I have listened attentivell 
to all this, though much of it I remember to have hear r 
thirty-five years ago. But I beg honorable Senators to recoli 
lect, that upon this side of the chamber we have interest:! 
and families, and homes, and a country, as well as the 
have; and that we are as little disposed to bring war upo 
our native land, unnecessarily, as they can be. That somi 
of us know by experience, all of us by reading and reflen 
tion, the calamities, moral and physical, tliat war brings ii 
its train. And we appreciate the blessings of peace wilhii 
conviction as deep and as steadfast. And no one desires i i 
continuance more eaniestly than I do. But all this leave 
untouched the only real subject of inquiry. That is n<i 
whether peace is a blessing and war a curse, but whethi 
peace can be preserved, and war avoided, consistently wit 
the honor and interest of the country. That question mri 
come up for solution ; and if it does, it must be met by eac 
one of us, with a full sense of its abiding importance, and i 
his own responsibility. I suppose there is not a gentlemB-: 
in this body, who will not say, tliat cases may occur, even j 
this stage of the world, which may drive this country to tM 
extreme remedy of war, rather than she should submit 
arrogant and unreasonable demands, or to direct attacl 
upon our rights and independence — like impressment, or tli 
search of our ships, or various other acts, by which pow 
is procured and maintained over the timid and the weaa 
The true practical question for a nation is not the cost 
war, whether measured by dollars, or by dangers, or by diii 
asters, hut whether war can be honorably avoided ; and thi 
question each person having the power of determinatic 
must determine for himself, when tlie case is presente 
Good men may indulge in day-dreams upon this subj^;( 
but he who looks upon the world as it has been, as it is, an 
as it is hkely to be, must see that the moral constitutid 
of man has undergone little change ; and that interests an 
passions operate not less upon communities, than they d' 
when tlie law of public might was the law of public rigl 
more openly avowed than now. Certainly a healthful pub ' 
opinion exerts a stronger influence over the world,than at a 
former period of its history. Governments are more or less i 
stiained by it, and all feel the effects of it. Mistresses, and ■ 
vorites, and minions, no longer drive nations to war, nor n 
mere questions of etiquette among the avowed causes of Ik 
tilities. It is not probable, that a people will ever be agr 
overcome, because a statesman may consult his vanity rati ' 
than his taste in the choice of his pictures, nor that tiio st;i 
of Europe will be changed because a lady's silk gown m 
be spoiled by a cup of tea. Humanity has gained sonii 
thing — let us hope it \\ill gain more. Questions of war ; ; 
passing from cabinets to the people. If they are discuss 
in secret, they are also discussed before the world, for iIkk 
is not a Government in Christendom, which would dare 
rush into war, unless that measure were sanctioned by t| 
state of public feeling. Still, let us not deceive ourselv , 
Let us not yet convert our swords into ploughshares, nor c 
spears into pruning-hooks, nor neglect the maritime and n 
itary defences of the country, lulled by the syren song 
peace, peace, when there may be no peace. I am afraid • 
have not grown so much wiser and better, than our fathe 
as many good people suppose. I do not discern upon 1 
horizon of the future the first dawn of the millenium. 1 
eagle and the lion will not always lie down in peace togeth 
Nations are yet subject to human passions, and are too oft 
their victims. The Government, which should say, I v 
not defend myself by force, would soon have nothing to i 
fend. An honorable Senator quoted a remark I made so: 



m 



ID III 



tan 



mi 



11 



' me since— I will not say with a sneer, but with an appear- 
ace of disappi-obation— that it was better to defend the first 
ich of national terdtory than the last. Does the honorable 
enator believe in the converse of this proposition ? — that it 

'"I better to defend the last inch of territory than the first? 

"' f he does, I sincerely tiust, as well for his own sake as for 

'^ 16 sake of his country, that he may never be driven to cor- 

* bet his error in the school of experience. What, however, 
le Senator from New Jersey did not do, the Senator from 

™ forth Carolina has done. He sneers at territorial as well 
'' s jiairiotic inches ; he means a " line in substance, noi erery 

* ich." " I do not measure my own or other people's patri- 
?' tism by the inch." "How one's American blood boils at 
"fie thought of ceding inches. ' ' He does not tell us by what 
'''tandardhe would measure the soil of the Republic, or the 
Hiatriotism of lier people. It is evident that he does not be- 
•'" ieve that wise old saying, " Give a man an inch, and he wijl 

ike an ell." Give a nation a small strip, and it will demand 
larger one. To attempt to purchase safety by concession 
3 to build a bridge of gold, not for a retreating, but for an 
dvancing enemy. Nations are like the daughters of the 
*lorse-leech ; they cry, "give, give." It is idle, sir, to array 
!6'lurselves against the powerful instincts of human nature; 
" nd he, who is dead to their influence, will find as little sym- 
'Ij atliy in this ageof theworld, ashe would Iiave found had he 
"< [ved in t"8e ages that are passed. If we suffer ourselves to 
ol e trodden upon, to be degraded, to be despoiled of our good 
^ISiame and our rights, under the pretext that war is unworthy 
i«! if us or our time, we shall find ourselves in the decrepitude 
*nf age, before we have passed the period of manhood. 
"i i A great deal has been said in England, and not a little in 
K lie United States, respecting our grasping propensity in dc- 
i banding the whole of Oregon; and we have been solemnly 
i Idmonished of the awful'responsibility of involving two great 
illations in war. The subject in dispute is said not to be 

II kforih the perils a conflict would bring with it; and the lion- 
ii((rable Senator from Maine has exhibited to us, as in a bal- 
ls Ince, the disasters of war, and the value of the matter in 
lil onlroversy, and has made our territorial claims to kick the 

III leam. Permit me to turn to the other side of this picture. 
>t acknowledge the moral obligation of Governments to avoid 
It 'yar, where higher obligations do not drive them to it. I will 
Bi lot call England the Pharisee of nations, but I will say that 
li he does not hide the light of her own good deeds under a 
111 bushel. The ocean scarcely beats upon a shore within sight 
lUf which her flag is not seen, and within sound of which 
iCi ier drum is not heard. And yet her moderation is proclaim- 
Ibld, and often with the sound of her cannon, from one end 
»'i if the civilized world to the other. She is not like other na- 
;al io7i-?, and least of all, like that great !(raspins; inohocracy of 
1U%^ West. "I thank God," said the Pharisee of old, "that 
it am not as other men are." Now the chapter of accidents 
Ik; las turned up favorably for England, if she will accept the 
lio ipportunity afforded her. No man in this country wants 
!(• va;- — idtraiits no more than compromisists,H I may use terms 
( u- tilled by the occasion. The extreme partisan of decisive 
a iie:;sujes asks nothing but the whole of Oregon. Give him 
lio hat, and he will become as meek as the latest professor of 
aiiumility, who writes homilies upon national moderation 
dibr the London Times. Now, sir, let England abandon her 
;li irc'tensions, and all these disasters, the consequences of war, 
lilivhich are foretold — and I do not doubt many of them just- 
jiiy foretold — will give way, and exist only in the memory of 
ir.his debate. There is no condition of things, foreseen by 
Itliiiy man, public or private, in this country, which can 
ai!ive to England a better line, than 49°. The country north 
kiijf that line is therefore all she could gain by a contest, 
giivhich is to involve the fearful consequences predicted 
iiii both countries; which during its progress, it is said, will 
ilairing nation after nation within the sphere of its opera- 
miion, and which is finally to commit to the decision of the 
giword the great question of free government through the 

a kvorid, by placing in its path the antagonistic principle, that 
51 he many should be governed by the few. What, then, 
IK tvould England surrender to preserve the peace of the world, 
,c md tlius give the first practical proof of moderation to be 
ll'ound in fhe long annals of her history.' I agree fully with 
lve>he honorable Senator from Missouri, [Mr. Atchison,] that 
[0 if England would acknowledge our rights, and withdraw her 
m apposition to them, and should then ask a better access to 
,j Jie ocean for her interior territories, I would grant it with- 
j'j put hesitation, as a favor, upon the most reasonable consid- 
jfisration. If this should be done, she would have left about 
III three hundred miles of coast to fight for; and I will return 
Tithe question of the gentleman from Maine, and ask if this 
iliptrip of land is worth the price of such a contest? England 
ifiiis already gorged with possessions, both continental and in- 
jsular, overrun, almost overloaded with subjects of all castes, 
jjcolors, and condition. At this very moment, she is waging 
ijU two wars of aggrandizement — one for commercial projects 



upon the La Plata, and the other for a new empire upon the 
Indus. The latest Morning Chronicle I have seen, one of 
last month — and that paper is the Whig organ of England — 
says, and the proposition is enunciated with characteristic 
coolness, and with as much apparent candor, as if it were 
extracted from the latest treatise upon public morals, " we 
can never govern India so well as we might, until v:e ^possess 
the whole of it." A congenial sentiment is quite as much 
at home in every English breast, that America would be much 
letter governed than it is, if England possessed the whole of it. 

Let the British Government now say, two wars at the 
same time are enough for the purposes of aggrandizement. 
We will not encounter a third— we will give up this doubt- 
ful and disputed claim, and hold on in America to wliat we 
have got — we will do so much for peace. Let her do this, 
and I, for one, will say, well done. You begin to practise, 
though upon a small scale, as you preach. And why not do 
so ? This territory is separated by an ocean and a continent 
from England. She cannot long hold it, if she should gain 
it. I mean long, compared withthe life of nations ; whereas 
it joins us, intervenes between us and our communication 
with tlie Pacific, will form an integral — I do not doubt a 
perpetual — portion of our confederacy, will be, in time, a 
necessary outlet for our population, and presents all those 
elements of contiguity and of position, which indicate and 
invite political unions. 

But it has been said and resaid, in the Senate and out of 
it, that two great nations cannot go to war. And why can- 
not two great nations go to war against one another, as well 
as two great nations combined agauist a small one ? So far 
as honor contemns a disparity offeree, the former would be 
mucli more honorable than the latter. 

What is going on in the La Plata, where France and Eng- 
land have sent their united fleets and armies agauist the Ar- 
gentine republic, and where the eclioes of their cannon are 
ascending the Parana and its vast tributaries, till they are 
lost in the gorges of the Andes ? 

There can be no war in this enhghtened age of the world t 
What, then, is passing in Africa, where one hundred thou- 
sand Christian bayonets have driven the Arab from his home, 
and are pursuing him into the desert, the refuge of the tiur- 
ban since the days of the patriarchs ? 

What is passing upon the shores of the Euxine, where the 
Cossack has left his native plains, and, at the call of Russia, 
is ascenduig the ridges of the Caucasus to subdue its indi- 
genous races, and to substitute the mild rule of the Musco- 
vite for their own patriarchal form of government — depend- 
ence upon the Czar for dependence upon themselves ? 

And what is passing in the Punjaub, where the last ad- 
vices left two mighty armies almost within sight of each 
other, after having fought a great battle of Hindoo ambition 
against English moderationl 

And how long since an enlightened Government, par ex- 
cellence, broke the barrier of Chinese power, which has so 
long insulated a vast emphe, and scattered dismay and death 
along its coasts, because its rulers had interdicted the sale 
of opium, a drug equally destructive to the moral faculties 
and to the physical powers of man? The Tartar passed the 
great wall, and planted his horse tails upon the towers of 
Pekin. He then became a Chinese, and the empire went 
on as before. But the Englishman, with his cannon-balls 
and his opium, has introduced an innovation into the habits 
and condition of one-third part of the human race, wliich 
may fatally affect its future prosperity. 

And how long is it since an English aniiy pissed the gates 
of Asia, and, ascenditig the table-land of that continent, if 
it had not been annihilated by a series of disasters, which 
have few parallels in modern warfare, might have reversed 
the march of Alexander, and reached the JMediterranean by 
Nineveh, and Bab}'lon, and Jerusalem? 

And only five short years have elapsed since Christian 
cannon were heard in the mountains of Lebanon, and their 
bombs exploded among the broken monuments of Sidon. 

In this brief vievi^ and review of pending and recent wars, 
I do not advert to the hostilities going on among some of the 
States of Spanish origin upon this continent, in Hayti, in 
Southern Africa, upon the frontiers of the colony at the Cape 
of Good Hope, in Madagascar, and in various islands of the 
Eastern ocean, because these are small wars, and some of 
them are waged by civilized nations against barbarous tribes, 
and hardly worthy of attention in these days of philanthro- 
py — of that philanthropy which neglects objects of misery at 
home, whether m England or Ireland, the relief of which 
would be silent and unobtrusive, and seeks them everywhere 
else through the world, that they may be talked of and ex- 
hibited as proofs of benevolence — which, as an eminent 
Frencli writer says, overlooks the wants of our neigh- 
bors, but goes to the north pole upon a crusade of charityf 
which has an innate horror at the very idea of black slavery, 
but looks calmly and philosophically, and with no bowels of 



M 



coinpassion, nor compunctions of remorse upon white sla- 
very and brown slavery, amounting to millions upon mil- 
lions in Russia, and in tlie EmjjUsIi possessions in Indi.i and 
elsewhere, btteause, lorsootli, tlii^ servitude is not in the 
United States, ;ind ncitlier cotton nor sugar will be aflbcled 
by it. 

These, and the Btlgian war, asid the Spanish war, and 
the Greek war, ;uc events of hut yesterday, yet soundins; in 
our eai-s, and dwelling upon our tongues." And I niighf go 
on witli these proofs and illustrations of the pugnacious dis- 
po-ition of the world, till your patience and niine were ex- 
hausted. 

Wliy, sir, if England had a temple of Janus, as Rome had 
of old, it would be iis seldom shut, as was tliat of her impe- 
rial prototype. The first fifteen years of this very century 
were nearly all passed in the greatest war known perhaps in 
the annals of mankind; and there are Senators in this body, 
and I among the number, who were born at the close of one 
war widi England, and have lived through another, and who 
are perhaps destined to witness a third. And yet zealous 
but ill-judging men would try to induce us to east by our 
armor, and lay open our country, because, forsooth, the age 
is too enligluened to tolerate war. I am afraid we are not 
as good as these peace men, at all sacrifices, persuade them- 
selres and attempt to persuade others. 

But, sir, to advert to another topic. I perceive — and I am 
happy to find it so — that there has been a nearer union of 
sentiment on one branch of this subject between the honor- 
able Senator from Maryland and myself than I had supposed , 
All I regret is, that he had not avowed his opinion earlier in 
the session ; for I should have felt myself greatly encouraged 
in my course by the identity of our views respecting the dan- 
ger of the countrj'. The honorable gentleman says : " We 
all have felt at onetime, at least — I trust that tliat time has 
passed — the nation was in imminent danger of war." "From 
' the moment the President of the United States deemed it 
' right and becoming, in the very outset of his official caieer, 
' to announce to the world, that the title of the United States 
' to the northwest territory «'as clear and indisputable, down 
' tu the period of his Message in December, when he reit- 
' erated the assertion, I could not see how it was possible 
' war was to be averted." " I could not but listen with dis- 
'may and alarm at what fell from the distitiguished Senator 
'from Michigan at an early period of this session." 

Now, sir, I have not the slightest nash to misinterpret the 
sentiments of tlie Senator from Maryland ; but I frankly con- 
fess I do not understand how, \vdth "the opinion he expresses, 
tliat war was unavoidable, any remarks of mine could have 
been thus characterized. I am well aware, indeed, that 
they came hke a bomb-shell into a powder magazine. But 
why, I have yet to learn. Like the honorable Senator from 
Maryland, the moment I read the President's Message, I 
saw, to my own conviction at least, that our relations with 
England were in a critical situation ; and that a regard to 
our duty, as representatives and sentinels of the people, re- 
quired us to take measures of precaution, proportioned to 
the danger, whatever that might be. The President, with a 
due regard to his own responsibility, as well as to the just 
expectations of his countrymen, sp"read before us, not only 
his own views and recommendations, but the whole diplo- 
matic correspondence, which had passed between the two 
Governments, on the subject of Oregon. Well, we all saw 
there vi'as a dead halt in the march of the negotiations. The 
President told us, in effect, they were closed. I am not, sir, 
very tenacious as to the word. I do not attach that import- 
ance, in fact, to the condition itself, which the Senator from 
North Carolina appears to do. I am willing to call it closed, 
or terminated, or suspended, or, in the Executive phrase, 
" dropped." All I wish to show is, tliat nothing was going 
on. Why the honorable Senator from North Carolina dwelt 
with such earnestness upon this point, I do not comprehend, 
unless, indeed, he supposed, that if the negotiations were 
closed, they were closed forever, beyond the reach of tlie 
parties. If such were his views, I do not partake them. I 
trust no question of mere etiquette will keep the paities sep- 
arated, if other circumstances should indicate they might be 
brought together. Such a course of action, or rather of in- 
action, would deserve the reprobation of the whole world. 
But however this may be, tbe President said, that all at- 
tempts at compromise had failed. These are his words. He 
invited us to sive the notice, for the termination of the joint 
occupation of the country. He said it was all ours, and that 
our title to it u-a^ maintained by irrcfragalle facts and ars^i- 
ments ; and he said, also, that at the "end of the year, the 
temporary measui-es, which a regard to treaty stipulations 
allowed us only to adopt at this time, must be abandoned, 
and our jurisdiction over the wholp country established and 
maintained. Such were, in effect, the views submitted to 
us by the Chief Magistrate of the nation, in the dischaige of 
a solemn duty, committed to him by tiie Constitution. 



One would think there were elements enough of trouble ' 
to engage the attention of the National Legislature, and to 
command its immediate action. If the ship of State were' 
to be steered by the chart thus prepared by the pilot, either 
Great Britain must turn from her course, or we nmst meet 
her. There was no other alternative. She must gainsay 
much she had said. She must relinquish much she had 
claimed. She must concede much she had denied. She 
must do what a proud nation does with reluctance — retrace 
her steps in the face of the world, and lower herself in her 
own estimation. I did not say she would not do all this. I do 
not say so now. But looking to her history, to her position, 
and to the motives of human conduct— as these operate upon 
comnmnities, as well as upon individuals — I had great diffi- 
culty in believing that she would do it, and I said so. And 
there was yet another element of uncertainty, combined with 
all these causes of embarrassment, and that was the doubt, 
if she came to the par.illel of 49°, whether she would find 
our Government r.-^ady to come back to the same line. I 
know nothing of the intentions of either Government upon 
that subject. I cannot speak authoritatively, and tlieretbre 
I doriot undertake to speak at all. I know as little as any 
one in tliis room, be he actor or spectator in the scene 
that is passing. WTiether the offer would be accepted, if re- 
peated, or whether it would be repeated, if dsmati4ed. All 
I know is, that as tlie basis of an amicable adjustlhent, tliat 
time, which, while it mends some things mars others, is 
every day increasing the diffieultj' of its establishment; andJ 
that, as a nie;ms of' terminating this controversy, I believe 
the question is rapidly passing from the control of tlie Gov- 
ernment to the control of public opinion. 

Under these circumstances, I introduced resolutions of in-i 
quiryinto the necessity of adopting measures forthe defence 
of the country, and, on the loth of December, I advocatcdl 
their adoption and explained my views, of which Ihave now 
troubled tlie Senate with a brief summary, and to which the 
honorable Senator says he listened witli "dismay and! 
alarm." " Dismay and alarm" at propositions for defence, 
when the gentleman himself says that "tlie nation was iiii 
imminent danger" ! ^A^lcn " he could not see how it was, 
possible war was to be avoided"! For it will be observed, , 
tliey were subsequent circumstances, subsequent by some- 
weeks, which removed tliis impression of the danger of wan 
made by the President's Inaugural Address, and byhisMes-- 
sage at the commencement of the session. They were the 
speeches of the Senators from Missouri and New York, and i 
especially the speech recently delivered by the Senator fromn 
North Carolina. For myself I did not hear one word fall I 
from the Senators from Missouri and New York, so far as 1 1 
recollect, in which I did not fully concur. The former, be- 
sides the authority which long experience, high talents, and I 
great services to his country and his part}-, give to all he says. . 
here and elsewhere, understands this whole subject bettei i 
perhaps than any man in the nation. And we all have bornci 
our tribute of gratification to the able and statesmanlike ex-i 
position of the matter given by the Senator from New York.v| 
I did not understand either of these Senators, as alluding to 
the ulterior course of tlie President, or seeking to express; 
any opinion respecting the result of this controversy. Aiioi 
I will ask the Senator from Maryland whetlier, upon a grave ' 
question like this, it is not safer and wiser to deduce tht- 
views of the President from two public and solemn docu-i 
ments, spreading before his country his opinions and fore 
shadowing his course, rather than from the construetior: 
given them by others, and resting upon what is called acts o ' 
omission and of commission. 

It is not a little curious, but it is nevertheless true, tha 
during the discussions brought out by my resolutions,' gen 
tlemen on the other side of the Senate took the opportunity 
of expressing their entire concurrence in the views ami' 
course of the President, and avowed their gialification a i 
the Executive statements and recommendations. ThouglJ 
a condensed narrative of the negotiations accompanied thdi 
Message and formed the groundwork of the suggestions subi 
mitted to us, and though the correspondence was spread oun 
in full before us. AVhat is now thought upon this subject on 
the other side of the chamber, it needs not that I should | ' 
tell. The views there expressed are as unequivocal as thej 
are condemnatory. " We all have felt," says the Senatoi 
from Maryland, "that war was imminent," and still mor< 
emphatically, " I could not see how it was possible war wa: 
to be averted." 

But I may be permitted to ask the honorable Senator, i 
war, in his opinion, was thus imminent, and not to b( 
averted, how happened it that my remarks " filled him wjtf 
alarm and dismay.'" I thought there was danger of war 
and so it appears did he. And his estimate of the dange 
was higher than mine ; for I thought that among other mean; 
of avoiding it, instant and adequate preparations might ex 
hibit such powers of offence and defence, and such a spin 



13 



n tiic country, that England might pause before she would 
Irive us to the last alternative of injured nations. And 
herefore was I so anxious for an immediate and decisive 
nanifestation upon tliis subject. But we have all siUfered 
', ;lie=e resolutions to sleep, as I remarked the ot)ier day, if 
! lot the sleep of death, a slumber almost as quiet; and 
,i tjhough they were a little startled by the President's Mes- 
^j-jfeage, still, "before their full resuscitation into life, it may be 
ii lece'ssMV, that thai same solemn warning should penetrate 
■;, :hese maVble Halls, which has said to other improvident na- 
, lions, awake! the enemy is upon you. If, then, both the 
. Senator and myself were apprehensive of war, and he 
,,'j thought it could not be averted, the " dismay and alarm" 
,jj which my remarks occasioned, did not result from any dif- 
3 Ference of views upon that subject. And, as these remarks 
" I'aad but two objects — one to show the danger v.^e were in, 
and the other to guard against it — it would seem to be the 
atter at which the honorable Senator took exception: and 
I ,a is certainly a cause of mortification, that I managed my 
subject so awkwardly, as to convert my prepositions for de- 
fence into a matter for "alarm and dismay." 

Since then, however, sir, another note of warning has 
reached us from the eiisteni hemisphere, and we not only 
Snow that England is arming, but the so\'ereign herself has 
innounced the fact in the most imposing manner, and has 
called upon Parhament to extend these armaments still fur- 
;hGr. And we now exliibit to the world the extraordinary 
spectacle of a nation in a state of perfect tranquillity — I might 
rather say of apathy, almost — ^^'itllout an army, without a 
militia — for oiu: militia is unfortunately nearly disorganized 
—with untinished and unfmnished defences, with an inade- 
quate supply of the materiel of war, «ith a navy calculated 
only for a state of peace, with three thousand six hundred 
miles of seacoast on the Atlantic, and one thou^and three 
hundred miles on the Pacific, and four thousand one hun- 
dred miles of interior frontier from Eastport to flie line where 
54° 40' strikes the ocean, and two thousand four hrmdred miles 
of interior frontier from the southwestem corner of Oregon to 
the Rio del Norte — making a boundary of eleven thousand four 
hundred miles, agreeably to the calculation I have procured 
from the librarian, and penetrable in all directions. While, 
at the same time, we are involvjd in a great controversy 
with the most formidable nation — formidable in the means 
;of injuring us — upon the face of the globe, which is buck- 
ling on its armor, and telling the world, througU its sovereign, 
that it will mai}itain its interests and its honor — which, be- 
ing translated into plain American, means tliat it will hold 
on to its claims. 

Mr. President, a great deal has been said, botli here and 
elsewhere, respecting the probability of war— whether it 
will result from the present condition of the two nations. 
Some gentlemen tliink this is a legitimate subject of inquiry, 
arising out of the principal question — that of the notice — 
directly before us; While others think we should decide tlie 
question on its own merits, leaving out of view the conse- 
quences, to which it may lead. Certainly, a question of ter- 
ritorial right should be judged and determined nakedly, and 
unembarrassed by other considerations. We owe that to 
our own honor. Still, it becomes prudent men, especially 
prudent statesmen, wiien taking an unportant step, to look 
to its results. Neither national nor individual acts are in- 
sulated — one measure leads to another. It seems to me it is 
not only our right, but our duty, as the Representatives of 
the States, to inquire where this raea.sure will conduct us. 
If to a stable peace, so much the better. If to war, let us 
eontemiilate its prospects and its dangers, and let us prepare 
for its consequences. But, at any rate, let us comnmne 
togetlipr, and not blindly ru?h into the future, rather driven 
by our instuicts, than guided by our reason. 

Our first object is to preserve our rights; our next to do 
that peacefully. While we all hope that war will be avert- 
ed, that hope will never be strengthened by underrating the 
capacity of eitlier nation to defend itself, or to injure its op- 
ponent. For my own part, I see no want of patriotism in 
stating plainly and frankly the means of annoyance that 
England possesses; and I think the course of my honorable 
friend from Delaware upon that subject was equally patriotic 
and judicious. Tliereissaidto be a bird in the desert, which 
hides its head in the sand, and then thinks it is safe from 
danger, because it cannot see it. Let us not imitate this 
folly-. Let us look directly at what we must encounter, if 
we are forced to war, and then let us behave like reason- 
able men, and make reasonable preparation to meet it. 

I see it said in a late London Herald, that we cannot carry 
on war, because we cannot procure the means to meet tlie 
necessary expenditures. The same assertion has been made 
in some of our own journals, and even by liigher authority. 
The Senator from South Carolina has referred in this con- 
nexion to a venerable man, for whom, and for whose pat- 



riotic* services, I have great and sincere respect, who has 
awakened from a pohtical slumber of almost a quarter of a 
ceritury, and presents himself to his countrjTuen with elab- 
orate statistical tables, showing the peciniiary cost of war, 
and tlie burdens it bring^'With it. All this is unnecessary. 
It is taught in the very horn-book of national expenditures. 
Ours is not a question of the cost of war, but of its necessity. 
That same eminent man, the survivor of the cabinets of Mr. 
Jeiierson and of Mr. Madison, was understood, in 1812, to 
entertain a sunilar repugnance againt committing the desti- 
nies of liis country to war, which he now exhibits, and to 
foreshadow similar difficulties. I do not know if the fact be 
so. I can repeat only the rumors of that day. It was then 
asserted and believed, that some report or document from 
the Secretary of the Treasury was intended to dampen the 
national ardor, by an imposing array of the contributions it 
would be necessary to levy upon the country, in the event of 
war, and thus to prevent its occurrence. But the effort, if 
made, was useless then, and it will be useless now. The 
war went on, because it could not be avoided without a sac- 
rifice of the national rights and honor, and it came to a glo- 
rious conclusion. It pushed us forward in all the elements 
of advancement. And as we did then so shall we do now. 
If a war is forced upon us, we shall meet it mth its dangers 
and its responsibilities. No array of figures vi'ill stop tlie 
people in their patriotic course. You might as well attempt 
to stop the surges of the ocean beating upon the seacoast by 
marks in the sand, which the first wave sweeps away, and 
then passes on. 

As to this notion, that a war cannot be maintained without 
cash enough ui tlie possession of the Government to carry it 
on, or the means of procuring it at any time by loans, the 
two successful experiments we have made have demonstrated 
its fallacy. I do not stop to point out the peculiarities in our 
condition which prevent our national exertions from being 
paralyzed by deficient resources. They are to be found in 
tlie spirit and patriotism of our people ; in the common in- 
terest they feel in a Government, established by them, and 
responsible to them ; in the system of private credit, which 
almost makes part of our institutions, and which often sep- 
arates by mde inten-als the purchase and the payment; in 
the abundance and cheapness of the necessaries of life, and 
in the military ardor which stimulates our young men and 
sends them to the standard of their country. iSfo modern 
Croesus, be he a king of financiers, or a financier of kings, 
holds in his hands the action of this Government. But even 
in Bi^Sope, a decisive experiment lias shown, that the exer- 
tions of a nation are not to be crippled by a crippled treasury. 
One of the great errors of Mr. Pitt arose from his belief, that 
as the French resources and credit were deranged and almost 
destroyed, therefore France was incapable of the necessary 
efforts to defend herself against the formidable coalition, at 
the head of which England placed herself, and to maintain 
which she poured out her blood as freely as her treasure. 
But the result proved the folly and the fallacy of all this, not- 
withstanding the depreciation of the French paper, and the 
difficulties consequent uponit. What was the progress and 
the result of this effort to prevent a people from changing 
and reorganizing their Government, is written upon the 
pages of a quarter of a century of war, and still more pUiinly 
upon the oppressed taxation of England; which now weighs 
upon her present condition like an incubus, and overshad- 
ows her future with dark clouds of adversity. 

I now propose to submit some observations upon the re- 
marks presented to the Senate a few days since, by the dis- 
tinguished Senator from South Carolina. The originality of 
Uis views, and the force of the illustrations, ^vitll which they 
were supported, give them gieat consideration; and as it seems 
to me, that in some important particulars, their tendency is 
erroneous, I desire to communicate the impression they 
made upon me. 

While I shall do this, with the freedom, which a sincere 
search after truth justifies, I shall do it with tlie respect that 
the eminent services and high character of tlie Senator jus- 
tify, and that an uninterrupted friendship of thirty years, 
which has been to me a source of great gratification, natu- 
rally inspires. 

The Senator states, that when this proposition for notice 
to terminate the joint occupancy of Oregon was first sub- 
mitted for consideration, he was opposed to it. But that 
now he is hi favor of it in some modified form ; the form, I 
believe, it assumes in the resolution of the Senator from 
Georgia. 

That his motives of action were the same in both cases — 
a desire to preserve the peace of the two countries ; that 
in the former part of • •..; ^f--;- '-- •''"""■'it "ip notice wouM 
lead to war, and the ? 
it would lead to pea ■'.:C- 

Certainlv, Mr. Pr ■ • 



14 



ttiftn to occupy. A chtinge of action on questions of expe- 
diency, wlu-rc (ircmnstaiicps have changed, is a dictate of 
true wisdom. H", who b,):isL-i lie has never changed, boasts, 
in fact, th.at the Icisons of experience have been lost upon 
him; and that he grows older without growing wiser. But 
before a change takes place in our approbation or condemna- 
tion of a great question of luitional policy, the reasons which 
dictate it should be carefully considered, and clearly estab- 
lished. 

Has this been done by the Senator from South Carolina.' 
I think not. IIj assumes the very fact, upon which his 
whole argument rests. He assumes that a great change has 
taken place botli in this country and in E^igland, in public 
opinion upon this subject, which will necessarily lead to a 
comproasise, and thus to im amicable adju^tuient of this se- 
riou; and long-pending controversy. 

Of the fact its?lf, tluis alleged, the Senator furnishes no 
proof. Indeed, he attempts to furnish none. He merely 
says : " There is one point, in which we nmst all be agreed, 
' ttiat a great change has taken place since the commence- 

• uient of this di:CUssion in relation to notice, in its bearings 

< upon the que-tion of peace or war." " Public opinion has 

< had time to develop itself, not only on tliis, but on the other 
' side of the Atlantic, and that opinion has pronounced most 
'au.libly and clearly in favor of compromise."' 

" As things now stand, I no longer regard it as a question 
' whether the controversy shall be pacifically arranged or not, 

* nor even in what manner it shall be arranged. I regard ttie 
' arrangement now simply a question of time," &c. 

Mr. President, I cannot partake this confidence. The 
signs of tlie times are anytliing but auspicious to me. It will 
be perceived, that the annuueiution thus certainly made of 
the peaceful termination of this matter, rests upon the 
change in public opinion and upon the conviction, that both 
Gjvernments are ready to comprosuise, and both prepared 
to come to the same line ; so much so, indeed, that tlie Sen- 
ator adds, " he trusts that iu concluding it there will be no 
unuf csssary delay." 

In all this, sir, I am under the impression, there is a great 
misnppreiiension. As to the wdvcrsidity of the propatition, 
t/iiit aU are agreed its tj this change. I know there is an error. 
For myself, my conviction is as strong as human conwction 
can be, not only that tiie change thus indicated has not 
taken place, but that a great change lias been going on in 
a contraiy direction. 1 believe that the opposition to a com- 
promise upon tlje parallel of 49° has increased, is increasing, 
and will go on to increase ; and that both here and^ Bug 
gland, public opinion is less and less confident in an amica- 
ble settlement of this rti-put''. I shall notp'irsue this matter 
into its details. I will merely remark, that the eridences of 
public opinion, which reach us, whether bonie here by let- 
ters, by newspapers, by the declarations of conventions, or 
by the resolutions of legislative bodies, is decisive and indis- 
putable. And, in proof of this, look at the passage of the 
resolutions in the House of Representatives by a majority 
almost unknown in a free country upon a great question like 
tliis, and involving such momentous consequences ; and this, 
too, when the Senator says, he thought their passage v\'0uld 
lead to war. And what say the advices from England .' 
They speak a language as positive, as it is minatory. What 
says the '• Standard," of March 3, the great Tory organ .' I 
will tell you : " But will the American Congress confirm the 
insolent and unwarrantable tone adopted by this bragga- 
docio V &c. And the person thus denominated by these 
models of all that is decorous, so often recommended to us 
for our study, is the President of this great Republic. " And 
dreadful as is the alternative, it will be with the utmost dif- 
ficulty that any British Minister can escape from it witli 
honor." The last London Times that I have seen says : 
" q'he joint navigation of the Columbia, the right of harbors 
' on the sea-coast, and the right of traltle for the Hudson Bay 
« Company on one buik of the river, are, we think, demands 
' neither unjust nor extrav;igant." The London Gazett. ,of 
March 3, saj'S : " The news frjm the United Stnta ju^HJics 
' the fears ice have repeatedly expressed of the determined spirit 
' of hostility iduch pervades a poivcrful party m the United 
* States." "The London Snn, a neutral paper, says: "The 

< news from this country has produced a strong feeling of in- 
' (lignation among our commercial circles ; and those who 
'have all along opposed the expediency of war, on account 

< of mercantile connexions, now openly claim a vindication 
'oftlie honor of the comitryatthe handsof the Executive." 
<' The feeling everywhere is, that England, having shown as 

< much forbearance as is compatible with her station in the 

< scale of nations, is now called upon to treat the proceedings 
'of the American legislators with the contempt they de- 
' serve." The Liverpool Courier of March 4, says : " The 
* consequences to which it may lead (the refusal to arbitrate) 
' may be most calamitous. But the Americans will only 



' have themselves to blame, if War ensues; for England hai 
' done all in her power to bring matters to a salislUctory and 
' peaceful issue." Such are the evidences of pulilic opinion 
iu England, which tlie last packet brought us ; and of tli8 
favorable cliaage there, which renders a compromise certain, 
and a question only of time. 

The honorable Senator has referred, in this connexion, to| 
the declaration of Sir Robert Peel, made some time sine 
the British House of Commons, that he regretted tlieir Min- 
iter had not transmitted to his Government the proposition 
of a compromise upon the parallel of 4S° ; that if not satis- 
fiictory, it might have been made the basis of a mnditicd ofJ'cr. 
I am not inclined to draw as favoral le a conclusion, how- 
ever, as the honorable Senator, from this incidental remark, 
made, not to us, but in tlie courseof a Parliamentary discus- 
sion. In fact, it is so cantiou-ly expressed, as to lead to no 
useful deduction respecting his real views. It is a mere bar 
ren remark. Had the Premier intended it should produce 
any practical consequences, he would have communicated 
to our Government the views of the British Cabinet, and 
would have accepted tlia otfor, or returned it with the pro- 
posed modification. But we hear nothing of this disappro- 
bation — no, not disapprobation, but of soft regretat tiieijasty 
dxisiou of the British Minister here — till six months after it 
took place, ai.d then we leain it in the public debates, and 
that is the last of it. [t is to me a curious chapter in the his- 
tory of British diplomacy, tliat a Minister would venture to 
take tlie grave respoiieihility of rejecting such a proposition, 
without refening it to his Gnvernment, and he is not even 
censured for it. If he had b?en recalled, or a successor sent 
out, with instructions to accept the propositions made by 
our Government for a compromise, we should then have 
had a proof of sincerity better than a barren declaration, and 
which might have led to a better state of feeling. 

The Senator from South Carolina has entered at some 
length into a def nee of his views respecting the acquisition 
of Oregon, by what is called the process of masterly inactiv- 
ity. And if he has not made converts to his opinion, he has 
gained many admirers of his talents by his masterly vindi- 
cation of it. 

Certainly, sir, it is often the part of true wisdom in tliia 
world to stand still — to wait for tiirie and circumstances. 
There is a great deal of wisdom in old proverbs, and one of 
tUem says, '-Let well enough alone.-' Time has wrought many 
wonders for our country, and is destined to vs^ork many more. 
The practical difiiculty is, to determine when inaction should 
cea--e and action commence, and how the operations of time 
can be best aided by enterprise and industry. The honora- 
ble Sjnator says, that circumstances have got ahead of liis 
system, and that he adverts to the subject, not to apply it, hut 
to defend it. It seems to me, sir, it never could have pro- 
duced the results tlie Senatoranticipated, and produced them 
peacefully. 

Here was an open question, which, foralmost forty years, 
had occupied the attention of the two countries, which had 
been kept at arm's length by an improvident arrangement, 
instead of being grappled witli and adjusted, as it could have 
been, and should have been, long ago, and which had at 
length increased to a fearful magnitude; and, what is still 
more, had begun to enlist passions, and feelings, and inter- 
ests, that threatened to take tlie controversy from tlie pen, 
and to commit it to the sword. The claims of two great 
countries to a distant territory were unsettled, and in a 
condition unprecedented in tlie history of national inter- 
course. Each with a right to occupy the whole of the ter- 
ritory, but each liable to have tliis right defeated by the 
jirevious action of the other party — each holding a remote 
possession, b.ginninj; to iill up by emigration witli tlicir re- 
spective citizens and subiects,liardy, enterprising, and some- 
what pugnacious, intermingled upon the same soil, seiz- 
ing it as they could, and holding it as they might, without 
any of tho^e improvements, which require for their creation 
and support the joint and legal action of a community, and 
wlio'ly irresponsible for their acts tnwards one anotlier. ex- 
cept througli the medium of tribunals belonging to the party 
claiming allegiance over the aggressor, and posses.ring no 
sympathy with the complainant. Tlie end of all tliis may 
be foreseen without the gift of secord sight. Collisions must 
be inevitable. The only wonder is, they have not already 
occurred. ^And the first gun that is tired upon the Columbia 
will send its echoes to the Potomac and the Thames. And 
think you.that the matter will be coolly examined, dispas- 
sionately discussed, and amicably arranged.' No, sir; each 
nation will believe its own stor)', and botli will be ready to 
arm, and assert its honor, and defend its citizens. All his- 
tory is full of these incidents; and tlie peace of two great 
nations is now held by the slightest tenure, dependent upon 
passions and interests to be called into fierce action upon 
the shores that look out upon China and Japan. We are 



15 



;o!d that time is the great physician, who miglit haVe cured 
I'ais disordered state of our political afl'atrs. I am a firm 
lelieverin the silent andcea-reless operations of that mighty 
„ent. But this case was beyond its power. If, indeed, time 
ifould stand still for one of the parties, and move only for 
he other— stand still for England, and move on for us— our 
tate of progress would soon pour through the passes of the 
locky Mountains a host of emigrants who would spread 
iver all the hills and valleys from the summit of that great 
larrier to that other barrier, the ocean itself, which says to 
he advancing settlements, Come no farther. But neither 
ime nor England would stand still. Her Government is sa- 
acious, alive to her interests, and ready to maintain them. 
She knows the value of the country as well as we do, and 
ippreciatesit perhaps higher. No one can read the speeches 
n the House of Commons on the 4th of April last, without 
eing sensible, that tlie subject, in all its extent, has occu- 
ied the attention of the British Government, and that the 
:ountry itself will occupy its fostering care. Thmk you that 
hat Government would have continued to see band after 
land of our citizens leaving our frontier settlements, lost to 
mman observation almost for months while passing through 
he desert with its toils, its privations, and its dangers, and 
"nally emerging into the land of pronnse, to seize it, and to 
old it, and would have looked cahnly on, receding as we 
(Ivanced, retreadng to the hill as we desceiided into the val- 
ey, and finally yielding us quiet possession of this long- 
lisputed territoiy.? He, who does not believe all this, must 
lelieve that time would not have peacefully adjusted this 
iontroversy for us. But, besides, this process of adjustment 
loes not assuine that our right to exclude the British from 
he country will be increased by settlement. It may add 
trength to our power, but none to our title. It does not 
)resuppose that war is to be averted, but only postponed. 
The rights of England, at the end of any given period, will 
e precisely what they now are; and, unless she should vol- 
mtarily relinquish them, a conflict would be inevitable. It 
;eenis to me very clear, that if slie would ever be disposed 
o abandon the country, she would do it now, when the dis- 
)arity offeree there is not such as to cast the reproach of 
imidity upon her counsels, and when the number of her 
iubjects is not such as to render diliicult a satisfkctory ar- 
angement for tliem. 
Mr. President, the Senator from South Carolina has held 
p to our view a sombre picture of the calamities, which a 
var with England would bring upon the United States — too 
ombre, sir, if I am not utterly ignorant of tlie history and 
;ondition of my country, and of tlie energj' and spirit of my 
'ountrymen. I shall not examine it feature by feature ; but 

rere are certain portions I desire to present to the Senate. 
What probable circumstances could require this country 
o keep up a military and naval force of two hundred thou- 
and men for ten years — the land portion of it divided into 
?even great armies — I confess my utter inability to conjec- 
ure. Wliy the honorable Senator fixes upon that period for 
he duration of the war, I know not. It is so wholly conjec- 
ural as to elude the apphcation of any principle to it. Long 
lefore its expiration, if we are not utterly unworthy of om- 
lame and our birthright, we should sweep the British Power 
Vom the continent of North America, and the remainder of 
he time must be occupied by predatory incursions upon the 
>oast and by hostilities upon the ocean. The dangers or dis- 
Sisters, which this state of things brings with it, would require 
but a small portion of the force considered necessary by the 

anator. As to Mexico, I tiu=t we shall bear much from 
ler. We owe that to our own stiength and to her weak- 
less ; to our own position, not less than to the situation of 
ler Government and to the quad civil war, which seems to 
)e the curse of her condition. But should we be driven to 
)ut forth our strength, peace would ensue, and speedily; but 
t would be a peace dictated in her capital, and placing her 
lolitical destiny at our disposition. 

And besides, during the progress of such a war, to which 
he honorable gentleman aliudes, who can tell the sphere of 
ts operations, and what nations would become parties to it.? 
low soon would the great maritime questions of our day 
)resent themselves for solution ? How long would it be be- 
bre England would revive and enforce those belligerent pre- 
ensions, which drove us to war when we were neutral, and 
wliich would drive other nations to war occupying the same 
loiition.? How long before the violation of her flag would 
irouse the public feeling of France, and compel her Govern- 
nent to vindicate its honor? And who can tell what war of 
Principles and opinions would come to add its excitement 
ind passions to the usual struggles of contending nations .' 
riie world is, indeed, in comparative repose ; but there are 
lauses in operation which, if quickened into action by pe- 
culiar circumstances, might shake the institutions of Europe 

(their very foundations. I consider 'a war between Eng- 



land and the United States for ten years, of for half of that 
time, utterly impossible, without bringing into cohision the 
grsat questions of our daj- — the right to govern and the duty 
to submit — and into fierce action the interests and passions, 
which such a struggle would excite— a struggle that must 
come, but which such a war would accelerate. 

In order, that I may remove even tlie possibility of misin- 
terpreting the sentiments of the Senator, I will read an e.v- 
tract or two from his speech. After alluding to the material 
horrors of war, and doing justice to the courage of his coun- 
trymen, he adds, that a war between us and Great Britain, 
such as has been described, " in which every nerve and 
' muscle would be strained to the utmost, and every dollar 
' put in requisition Which could be commanded, could not 
' faU, under present circumstances, to work most disastrous, 
' and I fear incurable changes in the social condition of our 
' people, and in their political institutions." He then ad- 
verts to the consequences of such a wa.-, drawing after it a 
Mexican war and an Indian war. He tliinks we should 
need two fleets, six or seven armies, one hundred million 
of dollars annually, and a proportionate system of taxation. 
He then continues, after shomiig the destruction of the 
State governments, and the consolidation of all power in 
the central authority, and that our very success would en- 
gander a spirit inconsistent with the genius of our Govern- 
ment: "It would then be a straight and downward road, 
'which lea..ls to where so many free States have terminated 
' their career— a military de. potism. In the mean time we 
' should have to provide for three or four successful gene- 
' rals, who would soon be competing for the Presidency, and 
'before the generation, which would have waged the war 
' would have passed away, they might possibly witness a 
' contest between hostUe generals for that supreme office— 
' a contest between him v/ho might conquer Mexico and him 
' v/ho might conquer Canada, terminated by the sv/ord." 

But permit me to ask the Senator from South Carolina, if 
all this were so, if his anticipations were certtiin, instead of 
being purely gratuitous, ought the assurance of such events 
to come from him, from such a high authority, in so high a 
place.' In the Senate of the United States, and from "one 
who has filled some of the mo;t important positions in our 
Government ; wliose services and talents, and character gave 
him great consideration wit'i his countrymsn ; who possesses 
a European fame ; and whose opinions are quoted at this 
n London and Paris as indications of our policy, 
!e final result of this controvarsy.? Is it well thus 
f. to the world our incapacity to defend ourselves .' 
in fact the result. A Government dissolved, or 
iiged to a despotism, a cou.atry ruined, and eventu- 
... jagments a prey to ambitious "generals, as the em- 
pire of Alexander was partitioned among his lieutenants ! 
War, then, becomes not a measure of safety, but a sisnal of 
destruction to the American p-ople. We are powerless to 
defend ourselves. If we are struck upon one cheek, v/e 
must turn the other ; not in a spirit of Christian charity, but 
in the despair of helplessness. We are bound together by a 
fair-weather Government, incapable of riding out the storms 
of foreign aggression. Submission must be our refuge, for 
beyond submission is destruction. We shall exhibit the 
extraordinary spectacle of a great people, great in nil the ele- 
ments of power and pro.^peri ty, saying to the world, in effect, 
we cannot contend with England. We are at her mercy, 
for even success would ruin us. 

Now, sir, this is not so. Tliere is not one man within the 
sound of my voice whose heart does not tell him, suJi hiis 
iiot been your pi-ist — -uchvill not he your future. Tiie hon- 
orable Senator, in looking at the real calamities of war, 
which I seek neither to conceal nor to deny, has suffrred 
himself to overrate tliem. They have struck him more for- 
cibly than they should do. The experiment of two wars 
with Enghuid, into which we entered, and from which we 
issued gloriously, puts the stamp of error upon tliese sad 
forebouhigs. How they pushed us forward, in character and 
position among tlie nations of the earth, I need not tell; nnr 
need I say, that the march of this countiy in all ihat consti- 
tutes the power and happiness of a p-?oplp, is a practical 
proof, that those conflicts left no wounds upon our institu- 
tions, and but temporory checks upon our prosperitv. 

The honorable Senator has appealed to his past history in 
proon that in presenting these views he acted in no unmanly 
fear for himself, and that if war comes, he would be amon" 
the last to flinch. No, Mr. President, no one in this nation 
doubts that his course would be firm and patriotic, should 
war be farced upon us. But he will permit me also to appeal ; 
to appeal from the Senaj^iV?^ 1846 to tlie Representative of 
1812. He is the Ultimusi^bi'inorum — thelaitof the Romans: 




the sole survivor among 
have passed from the 
The last of the actors, 



tion of statesmen who 

^^^ir countrr. 

gave fie 



16 



wo ill our second dixlaraiion of Iii(lopcndi:n.''P, '■cnrooly ir- 
feiior in it* Ciuiscs ;ind consiHiUJiit-es to tlie first. He came 
lirrf .voiins,', unknown to his country. He left these liulls 
«ith a niatuiilyofl'.iin!', whicli rarely falls to tiie lot of any 
statesman. I was then uptm the frimlit-r, and well do 1 re- 
monibir with wiiatstrainiiiffeyes and beating hearts vveturn- 
ed towards the Capitol, to know if the honor and interests of 
our country would he asserted and maintainc d. Tiiere wen; 
then two men here, upon whom, more th:in upon any others, 
pL'rhap.s more than upon aJl others, devolved tlie task of atl- 
vocatin!; the war, and of carrying lhroui;h the measures of the 
Administration. And nobly did tiieyperr'onn their duty. Tliey 
Were the honorable Senator from South Carolina, and a re- 
tired stiitrsman. Mr. Clay, from wiiom, though it haa been 
my fortune to differ in t'le i)arty contests tliat diviile us, yet 
it has always been my pride to do justice tolas emin-nt qual- 
ities, and to his bijjh services to his coiintrv, and e pjcially 
to his services during our la^t eoiit;^^t with England. Tliey 
were the leaders of tijat great legi-Ialive war, who, like the 
Homeric heroes, threw themselves into the middle of the 
fight, and fought the batrles of their pnrtv and of their coun- 
try, with equMl tilents, firmness, and success. 

As to the evils of war, he of u ' is blind to all historical 
e.\psrience, who does not see them, and unfaithful to his 
position, who does not acknowledge them. Tiiere is no 
such representative of the States here. We all acknowledge 
the evils of war, both moral and material. We (lilfer as to 
their degree, aiul as to the power of this country to endure 
and to inflict them. While the condition of England pre- 
sents great means of annoyance, it presents also palpable 
elements of weakness. I am not her pun^gvrist. I shall 
never be accused of that. But if I see the defects of her 
national charaetsr, I can see also her redeeming virtues. 
I am sensibly ahve to the acts of injustice she has done us. 
The feeling is deposited at my heart's core. But I do not 
shut my eyes, either to her power or to the virtues she actu- 
ally possesses. I need not tell what she has done to attract 
the admiration of the world ; for her deeds of vvar and peace 
are written upon many a bright page of human story. She 
has reached a commanding eminence among the powers of 
the earth — a giddy eminence ; and I believe she will find it 
an unstable one. I do not, however, estimate her present 
position as liigh as many do, and I consider it as misafe as 
almost any one can. Tlie elemei:ts of her weakness he 
upon the very surface of lier affairs, open to the most care- 
less observer. But she has great military and-najiaJ estab- 
lislmients, and she is augmenting and extendiiii 
am not going to spread before the Senate the 
. her powers of aimoyance and defence. Ta" 
sufficiently done already. But I will e.xptess 
conviction, that these tabular statements give an^!F^gera- 
ted picture of her condition. Old vessels, old guns, mere 
hulks, invalids, the relics of half a century of war, are ar 
ranged in formidable lists of figures, and go to swell the 
general aggregate. 

Besides," she has peculiar drawbacks to the e.xotion of 
her power. The seeds of danger are sown in the most im 
portant province of her home empire, and may at any time 
start up into an abundant har\est of ruin and disaster. Tlie 
dragon-s teeth may become armed men. 

She has possessions rouud the world to retain, and in 
many of them a discontented population to restrain. H.r 
conunerce, the very foui;dalion ot her prosperity and great- 
ness, is scattered over ail the bays, and iidets, and suits, 
and seas of the world; and he,Avho knows the daring char- 
acter and enterprise of our people, knows that our public 
and private armed vessels would almost sweep it from ex- 
istence. But I shall not pursue this investigation further. 
While I believe she will go to warvvilh us, if she cannot es- 
cape from i t without wholly sacrificing her own honor, as she 
■\iews the question, I recollect she ha^ done so twice before, 
with no credit to herself, but with iiup -rishable glory for us. 
A few words as to tlie condition of hi-r finances, and her 
means of carrying on a war. It is said to be thii last feather, 
that breaks the camel's back. That the time will come 
when the artificial and oppressive fiscal system of England 
must break down, and, like the strong man of Israel, involve 
hjr existing institutions in the fall, is as certain as any future 
political event can be. But that time has not yet come, and 
he must be a bolder or a wiser man than I am, to predict 
when it will come. She has the same means now to meet 
her war expenditures, which she has long had. The pow( r 
of drawing upon the future for tlie exigencies of the present, 
leaving the generations to come to pay the debt, or to ca>t 
it off, like a burden too hea\y to be borne. At this verj- mo- 
f. 1, " .'-:—",.,.,-,, opj„p„t vi:hj,.ii ..vill be almost a I 

re .. iMf- ■ ! ' t: (fearfid 

ov' - ,1' nichac- 

angps. 



As to the points of contrast between our condition and tha 
of England, they are before tlie world; and for the purposes 
of peace or war, we need not fear the most searching t'.\ain- 
ination. 

Ilippcn what may, \ve can neither be overrun nor con- 
(jurrid. England might as well att^'inpt to blow up the rod 
of Gibraltar with a sijuib, as to attempt to subdue us. I sup- 
pose an Eiiglislmian even never thinks of that, and I do nol 
know that I can exhibit in stronger terms its impossibility. 
1 might easily spread bi-fore the Senate our capacity tc 
annoy a maritime adversary, and to sweep thd British flag 
from this part of the continent ; but I forbear. What wt 
hare twice done in the days of our compaiative weakn'ss, 
we can repeat and far exceed in these days of our strength. 
Wiiile, therefore, I do not eonceiU from myself, that a wai 
with E:)gland would temporarily check our progress, andi 
lead many evils in its train, still I have no fear of the i.-sne,- 
and have an abiding confidence, that we shall come out oi'itjt 
mt indeed unharmed, but vvitli all the elements of our pros-; 
perity safe, and with many a glorious achievement wriltei^: 
on the pages of our history. 

It pains me, sir, to hear allusions to the destruction of thiSi 
Government, and to the dissolution of this confederacy. Itl 
pains me, not because they inspire me with any fear, but be- 
cause we ought to have one unpronounceable word, a-! tho! 
Jews had of old, and that word is dissolution. \Vi- should 
reject tlie feeling from our hearts and it-s nani" ironi our' 
tongues. Tnis cry of ■' u o, wo, to Jerusalem," grates harslil^j 
upon my ears. Our Jerusaleui is neither beleaguered nor idi 
d.mger. It is yet the city u;)on a hill, glorious in what it is^- 
stih more glorious, by the blessing of God, in what it is toi 
be — a landmark, inviting the nations of the world, struggling! 
upon the stormy ocean of political oppression, to fohuiv ush 
to a haven of safety and of rational liberty. No English Titus;; 
will enter our temple of freedom through a breach in tho; 
battlements, to bear tlience the ark of our constitution audi, 
the book of our law, to take their st;itions in a triunipiiai; 
procession in the streets of a modern Rome, as trophies oil, 
conquest and proofs of submission. 1 

Many a raven has croaked in my day, but the augury has 
failed, ami the Republic has marched onward. Manj- a 
crisis has presented itself to the imagination of our political 
Cassandras, but we have still Increased in pjlitical prosper-J 
ity as we have increased in years, and that, too, with an ac- 
celerated progress uuknovsii to the hiitory of the worldj;. 
We have a class of men, xviiose eyes are always upon the 
fiiturC;, overlooking the blessings around us, and" forever ap-' 
prehen; ive of some great political evil, which is to arre-t our 
course somewhere or other on tiiis side of the milienium.i 
To them, we are the iningi; of gold, and silver, and bra -is, andJ 
clay, contrariety in uniti", which tiie first rude blow of mis- 
fortune is to strike from its pedestal. 

For my o^vn part, I consider this the strongest governmenti 
on the face of the earth for good, and the weakest for evil. 
Strong, because supported by the public opinion of a people 
inferior to none of the communities of tlie earth in all tiiati 
coiiftitntes moral worth and usefiU knowledge, and wlio 
have breathed into their political system tiie breath of life; 
and who would destroy it, as they created it, if it were uii-i 
worthy of tlieni, or failed to fulfil their just expectations. 

Aiui weak for evil, from this x'ery consideration, whichjli 
would make its follies and its faults the signal of its over-r 
throw. It is the only Government in existence which uO' 
revolution can subvert. It may be changed, but it provides, 
fur its own change, when the public will requires. Plotsi 
and insurructions, wid the various struggi^s, by which an op^i 
pressed population manifest- its suft'eriiigs and seeks the i*- 
eovery of its rights, have no place here. We have noihing,' 
to fear but ourselves. ' 

And the Senator from South Carolina will permit me toi 
remark, that the apprehension he expresses, that a war iiiayy 
bring forward military eliieftajns, who would ultimately es-- 
taldish llieir own power upon the ruins of their eonntry'.^j 
freedom, is, in my opinion, if not the last of all the evil-, one),' 
of the very last, whicii this Republic has to fear. I wiil not! 
stop to point out the circumstances of our position, charac- - 
ter, and institutions, which render a military despoti.-mi 
impossible in this country. They are written in burning .j 
characters, not upon the wall, but upon the heart of every 
American; and they need no seer to expound them. Our 
safety is our union ; our only fear, disunion. In the moral 
government of the world, national oft'ences are punished by 
national calamities. It may be that we may fors.ike the God 
of our fathers, and seek after strange gods. If we do, and 
are struck with judicial blindness, we shall but add another to 
the long list of nations unworthy of the blessuigs acquired 
for them by preceding generations, and incapable of main-, 
t mingthem; — but none as signally so as wc. 



